


On Towards The Horizon

by heartsdesire456



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic At The Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Mpreg, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-15
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-07 19:24:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/434527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsdesire456/pseuds/heartsdesire456
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey Way has been missing for thirty-four cycles, all of which has been spent looking for him, when Gerard, Frank, and Ray come across a pair of young refugees on a bounty hunter ship they've boarded to search. When Frank nearly kills one of them, they make the decision to take the pair with them to administer first aid to the one Frank shot. Within minutes of having them on board, Gerard and his crew realize they have stumbled across something stranger than they had ever imagined. With Mikey's trail run cold and an extra situation on their hands, and the prospect of ever seeing their shipmate again begins to grow dim, will they manage to find Mikey, or has Gerard lost his brother forever?</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Towards The Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for the terrible summary you guys. I had no idea how to summarize this story, truth be told. Basically, I started out wanting to write a space!Au a while back and I started this months and months ago. Just in the last two days this story went from ~16K to it's current ~28K, so needless to say, I found inspiration again. Hope you enjoy it in spite of the atrocious summary!
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> [Originally Posted Here!!!](http://heartsdesire456.livejournal.com/942795.html)

Gerard paced outside the door to the airlock, scratching at his forehead with the barrel of his gun. His boots clunked on the metal of the floor heavily as he paced back and forth. “You know,” a voice called, interrupting his racing thoughts. “If you keep pointing your motherfucking gun at your head, one time you’re gonna commit inadvertent suicide.”

Gerard shot a crooked smile at his companion. “I’m pretty sure accidental death isn’t suicide, Frankie.” Frank shrugged, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. “And I have the safety on still, I’ve had some trouble with the photon generator on this one so I keep it on safe until it’s sure to not go off and either kill one of you guys or blow a hole in my damn ship.”

Frank shrugged his shoulders, rolling them impatiently as he gazed at the airlock. “God, I just wanna get on there and blast some motherfucking bounty hunting sons of bitches.”

Gerard’s jaw clenched. “I know the feeling.” He sighed, looking up at the door. “Remember, when we dock, we can’t just run on alone.” He shoved a hand through his dirty, tangled hair. “We have to wait for Toro. Bob’s got to stay in the cockpit so we can get away fast, but we need him behind us to blast anybody who jumps out.”

Frank grumbled. “I’m telling you, Gee, I’m nearly as good of a shot as him-“

“Bullshit, Iero,” Ray’s voice sounded and they both turned to see their companion coming towards them. “You wish.” Ray tightened the straps of his leather fingerless gloves around his wrists before putting his hands on the holsters of his guns. “Alright, Bob’s nearly done docking.”

Gerard nodded. “Good.” Gerard stood facing the airlock, waiting for the light to go from red to green, signaling that the docking process was over. The thump as they actually made contact was so soft of an impact that Gerard could’ve mistaken it for the pounding of his heart behind his ribcage. His pulse was beginning to boom louder in his ears as the seconds ticked by.

Thirty-four cycles. They had been looking for Mikey for thirty-four cycles after they got separated on a fueling stop gone bad at the docks of Skadus-9. They assumed he had ran into some Gens but in the end, they couldn’t find him in the system at all. They had gone to a few different ports looking for hackers before they found one and were able to determine that he was still on the Confederations ‘Persons of Interest’ list, meaning he hadn’t been caught by a Gen.

Bounty hunters were their next thought after they saw that he was worth ten-thousand credits to the Confederation. It was that line of thinking that brought them to where they were now, docking with a bounty hunter’s ship under the guise of having caught a pirate wanted by the Confederation.

Gerard glanced back at Frank and Ray and nodded, shoving his gun in the holster before crossing his wrists behind him. “You know the drill.” Ray and Frank nodded, holding his elbows, standing close enough together to cover the fact that his wrists weren’t tied or cuffed at all. 

As soon as the light went green, Frank slapped his fist against the button to open the airlocks, squeezing Gerard’s elbow as he glanced back at him, nodding once before turning ahead and steeling his features to that of a man who had caught a high-money prisoner.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Ray panted, throwing himself flat against the wall beside Frank. “Fuck this was a bad idea. Really, bad-“ 

_BAM!_

They both ducked as a blast hit the wall just above their heads. Frank peeked around the corner and fired a shot, only to look sniff and turn to look at Ray, who was frowning. “Dude… it got my _hair_!” he hissed, holding up a lock of hair that had a good few inches burned off from the laser blast.

Frank snickered. “That’s fuckin’ rad!” He took a breath. “Let’s do this!” he cried, before running around the corner with a dramatic shout. Ray groaned and counted to three before running after him. As always, Frank’s near-suicidal tactic of ‘run straight into the open screaming like a crazy man’ momentarily stunned the men firing just long enough for Frank and Ray to pick them off quickly.

When the last hunter hit the floor with a hollow thud, Frank ducked, only to realize there were no more blasts. “Clear?” he called curiously.

“Clear!” Gerard answered, voice echoing down the hall. “I think we got ‘em all but the crew, they holed up in the kitchen. I don’t think they’ll be a problem though.” Gerard came around the corner, licking his busted lip. “There’s passengers, but I gave them the ‘stay down and shut up and you won’t die’ speech _while_ shooting off hunters so I think they’re pretty much dealt with.”

Ray frowned. “Passengers? On this size hunting vessel?”

Gerard nodded. “A few miners from the Colonies near Aldor. I tied up the pilot, we can’t let a ship full of people drift,” he said bitterly. “Fuckin’ people getting in my way.”

Frank sighed. “Alright, no signs of Mikey?” he asked and Gerard shook his head, eyes dark.

“Not a damn sign of any captives. The hold’s empty. I didn’t get into the cargo bay yet, but the passengers don’t remember any sign of a prisoner.” He ran an hand through his hair, shoving it back out of his face. He gestured to the corridors with his gun. “I’m not leaving this ship until we’ve checked it _all_.”

Ray holstered his guns. “Alright, let’s get going. I’ll guard the kitchen door so the crew doesn’t get out and suddenly take up shooting at us.” He headed down the corridor, boots clunking on the steel grates as he left.

Frank touched Gerard’s wrist. “Hey, we’ll find him if he’s here,” he said in a low voice, frowning when Gerard wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“Yeah, I know I just-“ Gerard shook his head, tugging on his sleeves. “Fuck it, let’s just… let’s go.” He walked away from Frank, whose shoulders heaved as he sighed. He didn’t holster his gun, but he flipped the safety on, following Gerard down the corridor.

They searched the cargo hold first, but found nothing to signify Mikey had been there. They searched the crew and hunters quarters and found nothing much besides a few guns worth stealing and a combined measly total of two hundred and fifty-seven credits between the hunters’ things. 

They had just given up and were on their way back to meet up with Ray when, about four doors way from Ray, they heard a muffled thump behind the door next to them. Frank and Gerard both halted, shooting each other looks. Gerard nodded to Ray, who took up his gun and walked down to them. Gerard signaled to be quiet before he flicked the safety off his gun and yanked open the door.

Frank and Ray were just behind him and they both saw what was happening before it happened. Seconds after the door swung open to reveal a dark storage room, a figure flew out, rushing Gerard, the person tackled him, nearly taking them both down. Frank shouted for Gerard to get out of the way and shot, cursing when the man fell to the ground. He let out a pained cry and Gerard stood up, glowering as he straightened his clothes before kicking the man in the same leg Frank had shot him.

“Almost as good as Ray my ass,” Gerard cursed, raising his gun, only to hesitate. The man who had attacked him was lying on the floor, clutching his leg. Frank’s shot had only grazed the outside of his thigh. He was wearing a hunter’s jacket, but Gerard’s hesitance was mostly related to the fact that the man wasn’t as much a man as a boy.

“Gerard?” Ray asked, and Gerard cursed. 

“It’s a fuckin’ kid, Ray!” he spat, looking at him. “He doesn’t have a gun and he’s a fuckin’ _kid_!”

Frank cursed and grabbed the boy by the jacket, hauling him up, in spite of his cries of pain. “What the fuck are you doing here kid-“ They were interrupted by a sudden clatter from within the closet.

“OOF!” They all turned to the doorway, guns drawn again in time to see another person sprawled on the floor next to the shelf he had been hiding behind.

Gerard raised his gun, but was startled when the injured kid screamed at him. “NO!” Frank was startled enough that the boy was able to wrench himself free and fling himself bodily back into the doorway of the closet, falling in a heap in front of the other person. “No, no, whatever you are, don’t!” he cried, blue eyes full of panic.

“Spenc-“

The boy slapped his hand over the other man’s mouth- also a boy it appeared- and kneeled in front of him. “No, please don’t,” the blue eyed boy pleaded, giving Gerard and Frank panicked looks.

Gerard shot Frank a confused look. “They’re fuckin’ hunters, Gerard!” Frank hissed. “We can’t let them live, they aren’t _children_ , they chose this fuckin’ job.” He raised his own gun, but the blue eyed boy stared at him, face full of determination.

“No, damn it!” he cried angrily, though he was clearly flagging from the blood loss. The smaller one behind him was clinging to his shirt from behind him, crying in nothing less than full on _terror_. “Listen-“ The blue-eyed boy was rapidly growing pale, either from fear or blood loss. “Look, just- take me. Whatever you want, take me, don’t hurt him. I’ll fucking go with you, I won’t run, but please-“ He shook his head, eyes full of desperation. “Don’t hurt him. I won’t run again, I’ll fucking sharpen the damn blades myself, just don’t do this. Let him go. _Please_.”

Frank shot Gerard a confused look and Gerard shrugged. “Ray?” he asked, but Ray shrugged as well. 

Gerard sighed. “Wait, what the fuck are you talking about?” he asked, rubbing his temple. He was really getting sick of hunters. “This type of bullshit doesn’t change what you are-“

“I know what I am, and I regret _nothing_ ,” he spat viciously. “But I’m telling you, I’ll go back, but I’ll _pay you_ to let him go.” 

“Spencer, your leg-“ The brown eyed boy’s tearful voice was full of fear. 

“I know,” Spencer said softly, turning to glanced behind him. “I- I know-“

“Spencer, you’re _bleeding to death_!” he hissed. 

“Yeah well it’s this or the other, Brendon, I’m just trying to fucking save you!” he hissed.

Frank just shot Gerard an even more confused look. “Gee?” he asked, scratching at his head with a frown.

Gerard shook his head. “Wait, wait, wait!” He pointed at the kid’s leg. “First off, you’re not bleeding to death you moron, it’s just a flesh wound.” He frowned at the boy. “And what do you mean go back? Go back where?”

Spencer, as it appeared the blue-eyed kid’s name was, gave him a confused look. “Back to Terros, where else?”

Frank frowned. “Terros? What the fuck dude? Terros is nowhere near us, why would we take you there?” He blinked. “I’ve never even been near that system even. That’s about as far as you can go towards the Void and still find places where you can refuel.”

Ray frowned. “We’re only actually about four parsecs from there, now, Frank.” He did some counting on his fingers, then shot the two on the floor a look. “How did you get here? Terros doesn’t have open transport docks. They don’t even trade with the outside world. Their docks are military and dignitary only.”

Spencer shifted, whining at the pain. “You- you’re not- you’re not here to kill us?”

“My father didn’t send you after us?” Brendon asked from behind Spencer, leaning around him.

Gerard shook his head. “Why is your father trying to kill you?” he asked suspiciously, taking a step forward.

Spencer panted softly as he moved to get in front of Brendon again. “Get back,” he spat angrily, though his anger was clearly fueled by his pain. “Don’t touch him.”

“Kid, I’m not going to hurt anybody,” Gerard said. “Let me look at this-“ He reached towards the boy’s leg, but Spencer snarled, punching him in the face with surprising strength for someone barely able to stay sitting up.

When Gerard stumbled back, Frank started forward, but Gerard held up a hand, stopping him. Spencer let out painful whines as he stripped off the hunter jacket he was wearing and- with his companion’s help- wrapped it around his leg. “Whoa!” Frank cried, eyes widening in horror as he spotted the brand on Spencer’s forearm.

Gerard glanced at Frank after his cry, and followed his line of sight to the brand on the kid’s arm. “What the fuck?” he asked, frowning. “Who the hell _brands_ themselves anymore? Tattoos are totally cooler-“

Frank stepped closer. “Where were you captured?” he asked gently, kneeling down in front of him.

Gerard frowned. “Frankie?” he asked, seeing the dark look in his eyes. “Frankie, what do you mean?”

Frank sighed. “I saw marks like that, Gee.” He flinched. “At… back home,” he all but whispered.

Spencer looked at his arm and held it up to the light. “Oh, I always forget it’s there,” he said, then looked up. “Delta-3.” He shrugged. “I was ten, so I barely remember getting branded-“

“TEN?!” Frank cried, eyes filled with an unmistakable horror. “They take children?”

“Frank,” Gerard said cautiously. “What’s going on?” He knew Frank grew up in a rough place and that it wasn’t something he liked to talk about. He was sometimes scared of what he’d find out if he did explain.

Frank looked at Gerard with wide eyes. “Gee, that’s a brand from a slave trader.” Gerard’s breath caught. “They- they capture men and brand them before they sell them off.” He looked at Spencer. “ _Ten_?”

Spencer shrugged. “Like I said, I barely remember it.”

“Spencer, really, you’re not okay,” Brendon whispered darkly, laying his hand on Spencer’s hip above his burned leg. “Spencer, it should’ve cauterized the wound, you shouldn’t be bleeding like this-“ He stopped and looked up. “Please,” he whispered to Gerard, eyes wide. “Please, help him.”

Gerard glanced back at Ray, who shrugged. “May as well. They aren’t hunters and the crew here may not help them after all the trouble we’ve caused.”

Gerard put his hands on his knees and stood tall. “Mikey isn’t here. Frank, you and Ray get him,” he said, gesturing to the injured boy. “You, kid,” he barked at Brendon. “Come with me.”

Spencer gave him a dark look. “If you hurt him-“

“Seriously, I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m not going to hurt your friend.” He took the kid by the arm and hauled him up before handing him off to Frank and Ray. He nodded at the other boy, who stood up slowly, staring at him like he was going to turn and shoot one of them at any moment.

He exchanged looks with Frank, who had a dark look as he helped the injured kid down the corridor, opposite of Ray. They walked towards the airlock in silence, save for the pained noises of the injured member of their party.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
After getting Spencer to the sick bay and using the comm-link to tell Bob it was safe to disengage their ship and take off, leaving the hunters ship to make its own way with its passengers, Gerard stepped aside while Ray took care of Spencer’s leg. He had hit a vein apparently, which was bleeding pretty good. 

“It’s not too bad,” Ray reassured. “Let me clean it up and laser-stitch it.” As he turned away to get out the materials he would need, he waved a hand. “Frank, help him get his pants off, then go look and see if we have some spare jumpsuits.” He looked over at Brendon, who was shivering. “These two are not dressed for deep space travel like this.”

Gerard took in their appearances, noting that they were wearing thin tee-shirts, not layers, and simple, light material pants. Their jackets they had taken from the hunters that led to the whole misidentification problem were their only warm layers. “What the hell are you two doing dressed so lightly anyways?” he asked, looking at them.

“We stowed away on a Confederation ship. If we had dressed warm or taken anything with us, we would’ve been suspicious looking when we left the Palace.” Spencer glanced around and gasped softly as his eyes settled on Brendon.

Gerard looked over as well, noticing Brendon was standing at the window. The sick bay was at the outside of the ship, just below the observation deck, so there was a large window, like most of the rooms this side of the ship. He raised an eyebrow at the awestruck expression on the brown haired boy’s face as he stared out at the stars in the distance. “What is it?” Gerard asked softly.

Spencer smiled gently, not looking away from Brendon. “He’s never seen this,” Spencer said softly.

Gerard raised an eyebrow. “Never seen what?”

“Darkness,” Brendon said, voice reverent as his eyes explored the black around them, only the pinpricks of distant stars and systems to perforate the heavy veil of darkness around them. Brendon raised a hand and touched the glass, gasping softly when he felt how cold it was.

Gerard watched curiously, so intently staring that Ray slamming the medical kit on the table startled him. Ray looked up. “What do you mean you never saw darkness?”

Brendon turned back, drawn from his reverie. “Oh, on my planet, we don’t have night. There’s two suns,” he explained. “Twice a cycle there’s a twilight, but as soon as Zenis starts setting, Anthar starts rising, and vice versa.”

Ray looked at him curiously. “I thought Terros was a closed society. They don’t interact with the outside world. Why did you want to leave?”

“Why does your father want you captured?” Gerard asked, remembering what they had said on the hunter’s ship.

Brendon walked over to Spencer, giving him a somewhat frightened look as he took Spencer’s hand in both of his, glancing at the injury on his thigh. “Should I?” he asked softly and Spencer shrugged, flinching as Ray swabbed the wound with disinfectant.

“They don’t seem to be after us. They won’t know,” he said simply.

Brendon sighed. “I’m Prince Brendon Urie,” he said, startling Gerard somewhat with his announcement.

“You’re a _Prince_? So… your father is-“

Brendon nodded. “King of Terros. I’m the youngest of all the Royal children.”

The door opened and Frank came back in, holding up jumpsuits. “Here you go, this will be a lot warmer,” he told Brendon, tossing one to him. “When you’re done, you can put this on,” he offered to Spencer, who took the bundle, laying it beside him. “So, who the fuck are you guys?”

Gerard chuckled. “Apparently, this is Prince Brendon Urie, youngest child of the King of Terros,” he offered.

Frank looked at Spencer suspiciously. “You’re a slave. You’ve been a slave. Why the hell are you on the run with royalty? Why did you throw yourself in front of a fuckin’ gun for your _owner_?”

Spencer gave him a dark look. “He doesn’t own me, his father does, and he doesn’t have to be my master for me to die for him,” he said in a cold, angry tone. “You _shot_ me remember?”

“You’re lucky it wasn’t me,” Ray mentioned, giving him a smile. “I’d have killed you,” he said simply.

Frank huffed. “Hey, it’s totally good I missed!” He patted Spencer’s shoulder. “Sorry, kid. It wasn’t personal, I thought you were a hunter. And you attacked Gerard,” he pointed out.

Spencer rolled his eyes. “And I thought you were coming to take us back to Terros.” He hissed in pain as Ray stuck a syringe into his leg.

“Take it easy, it’s to numb it before I start stitching. Trust me, one is better than all these laser-stitches will be,” Ray soothed and Spencer fell back onto his elbows with a pained groan.

“Shhh, it’s okay, Spence,” Brendon said, stroking his fingers through his hair. He looked back at Frank and Gerard. “Spencer was bought to be my companion as a little boy. I was eleven and had nobody to play with and my father decided to buy another little boy for me to play with. When we got older, he was my valet. Basically, my personal servant.” Gerard raised an eyebrow as Brendon looked down at Spencer with a soft look. Some dots were being connected. Brendon stroked Spencer’s hair tenderly, still smiling as he glanced up. “He was my best friend so soon after we met. I was horrified to realize my father could _buy_ another child, and Spencer was afraid after being caught and sold, so I was nice to him. I wanted him to not be scared.” He bit his lip, sharing a tender look with Spencer, who smiled up at him. “I was fifteen and Spencer fourteen when I started to realize that-“ He smiled at Gerard. “I didn’t see him as just my best friend anymore.”

Frank let out a soft ‘oh’ of realization and Gerard nodded. “Let me guess… your father didn’t exactly like that.”

Spencer snorted. “We weren’t stupid,” he spat. “God, even when we finally got our heads out of our asses and admitted we were in love, we had to hide it.” He looked up at Brendon. “It was hard. Brendon started getting offers of marriage when he was sixteen. I was horrified he was going to get married and taken away from me.”

Brendon bit his lip. “I kept convincing my father and the council that it wasn’t time yet, I kept telling them none of the people they chose for me were right. It worked until a few months ago,” he said weakly.

Gerard gave him a sympathetic look. “They found somebody for you to marry for real this time?”

Spencer and Brendon exchanged a look and Spencer smiled up at him lovingly. “Not exactly,” he said, then turned to Gerard and Frank. “Brendon’s pregnant.”

Frank and Ray both snapped their heads up and Gerard just stared. “Wait… what?” Frank asked in a squeaky voice, eyes big as saucers.

Spencer laughed softly. “Brendon’s not human, he’s Lanoan. Lanoans are the species of human that live on Terros.”

Brendon nodded. “Lanoan males and females can bear children. Only men can impregnate someone else, but we can both have children. It isn’t as common because same-gender pairings aren’t as common as men and women marrying, but it happens plenty.” He cringed. “It’s also why royal children aren’t supposed to be with anybody outside of wedlock.” He slid his hand into Spencer’s. “When I found out, I told Spencer and we agreed to keep it quiet. I could hide it for at least half of the pregnancy and we could work out a way to get away.”

Spencer smiled sadly. “But someone found out. They found out Brendon was pregnant, and they knew the only man he’s been around in private with is me. Nobody else but maids- all women- were ever allowed in his apartment.” He sighed weakly. “I was to be captured and sentenced to death.”

Brendon nodded, biting his lip. “A maid though, she overheard the council and ran to tell us. We were both asleep and she rushed in and told us. At first, Spencer was just going to let them get him, since running after they knew I was pregnant was basically suicide. I convinced him to run, to at least try.”

Spencer’s expression grew hard. “But when I ran-“ He paused, taking a breath. “When I ran, I met a woman who I’d known since I was a child. A lady from the kitchens. She told me that they had decided they were going to wait until Brendon had the baby and then while he was too weak to fight them, they were going to kill our child,” he choked out, voice tight. He shook his head. “I went back. I went back two cycles later, and then just took Brendon and we ran. I didn’t even explain _why_ I had to get him out before we had paid our passage on the ship you took us from.”

Brendon smiled sadly. “It was all our money too,” he said, glancing at Gerard and Frank’s horrified expressions. “Yeah, I come from a fucked up group of people,” he joked, looking back to Spencer.

“They-“ Frank just shook his head, standing up to walk over to the window. 

Gerard shook his head. “They were going to _murder_ a newborn baby?”

Brendon shrugged. “I’m a prince. How would it look for an unmarried prince not only to have a child, but the child of a slave?”

“Well,” Ray said, continuing on the stitches. “At least that explains why you were so damn determined to be a human-shield back there when we were aiming guns at Brendon.”

Spencer groaned. “Fuck I nearly died. I honestly nearly died. We’d just got away and I was sure we were going to make it out, and people with guns were aiming them at my pregnant lover. I would’ve done anything to protect him in that moment.”

Brendon smiled. “But we’re okay, so it’s not a problem anymore.” He leaned down and kissed the top of Spencer’s head. “We’ll figure things out, Spence. I promise.”

Gerard raised an eyebrow at the blind naivety in the boy’s words. “Kid, you’ve never been off of Terros. What the hell did you think you were going to do out here in deep space?”

Brendon turned to him with a harder look in his eyes than Gerard expected. “Whatever we can. Look, I’m not stupid, we have no money, no contacts, and no idea where the hell to go. But if we had stayed, I would’ve lost the love of my life and had my child murdered before I got to hold it,” he said sharply. “You tell me what else I could’ve done?”

Gerard smiled in amusement. “Good point.” He looked at them both. “God, how old are you? You look so young.”

Brendon sighed. “I’m nineteen, Spencer’s eighteen.” He bit his lip with a bashful smile. “Like I said, clearly, we didn’t plan on this,” he said, laying his hand on his middle. It struck Gerard as really strange to think that the skinny little teenager in front of him had a _baby_ in him beneath that hand.

“But it isn’t a bad thing,” Spencer said defensively, glaring around at them as though they were going to argue with him. “This baby is the best thing that could ever happen to us.” The determination in his voice alone was enough to startle Frank back a step.

“No, dude, I mean… hey we’re not judging you,” Frank said, shrugging. “Your life, man. Hell, on Terros maybe that isn’t even young-“

“Oh it is,” Brendon said with a dry chuckle. “Royalty gets married young, that’s why I started getting offers at sixteen, but normal society? Pretty much like most societies. Procreation is normally mid-twenties to early thirties when our species are most fertile. Just like normal humans. It’s not as common someone as young as me even conceives, unlike normal humans. We’re not just ‘a little more ready for pregnancy’ like humans are, we’re actually not usually able to reproduce before at least mid-twenties. Usually around ten years past puberty.” He smiled. “I guess it’s just the same as my voice, I matured a lot faster than most of the other boys.”

Spencer snorted. “I look like puberty never hit me and I still got you pregnant,” he pointed out.

Brendon smiled. “You forget, Spence. Even though you’ve lived most of your life on Terros, you’re not Lanoan. You’re biologically different. It’s amazing we were even able to reproduce.”

Frank looked up. “What, you’re Human-human?” he asked, and Spencer nodded. “Where the hell did you come from to get captured on Delta-3 station then?” he asked.

Spencer looked down at his brand, turning his arm different ways. “The moon,” he said hollowly.

“Which one?” Gerard asked, but Spencer shook his head.

“No, _the_ moon.”

Gerard and Ray shared a look suddenly, eyes widening. “Like… Earth? You’re from Earth?” Gerard asked, really surprised.

Spencer shook his head. “My parents were. They were refugees that went to the moon during The War. Me and my sisters were born on the moon. When The War started to threaten the moon too, and overpopulation was sapping all of the water from the ice, we left. Our transport docked at Delta-3 station and I got separated when a food riot started. One minute I was last in the line, all of us holding hands to keep from getting separated, and then I stumbled and fell… when I woke up, I was in a cage with a bunch of strangers.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ve blocked out the rest of it. I don’t remember much but flashes until sometime later. I have no idea how long it was, no idea how many cycles it had been, but I was being led by a group of women into a room and they cleaned me and then I was presented to Brendon.” His voice trailed off and he shrugged. “So yeah, I’m full-blooded Earthling but I was never there.”

“Alright guys,” Ray interrupted. “Spencer needs to rest. The medicine I gave him to numb the pain will wear off soon and he’s not going to want anybody bugging him,” he advised, packing up the medical kit.

Gerard nodded. “We’ll come back later to talk more, but for now you’re safe, I promise.” He looked at Brendon and gave him a small smile. “Promise, we’re not gonna hurt you.” Gerard looked over at Frank, who nodded, walking out in front of Gerard. When Gerard turned to press the airlock close button, he paused, fighting a sad smile as he saw Brendon standing vigilantly beside Spencer, holding his hand tightly and stroking his hair as he spoke to him softly.

They were far too young for the crap they had been through. Gerard wished he could save them from the crap they were going to get dragged into after ending up on his ship. 

With a sigh, Gerard hit the button, allowing the sliding door to cut them off from his sight.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gerard sighed, shrugging off his jacket as he climbed into the seat beside Bob. “Well shit.”

Bob yawned. “Toro said we picked up some hitch hikers,” he said and Gerard propped his feet up on the control panel, sighing. 

“A couple of kids.” He smirked at Bob. “The runaway youngest prince of the Lanoan people from Terros and his personal servant-slash-lover.” He turned to Bob with a grin when he saw the disbelieving look on Bob’s face. “Who is also the father of his unborn child.”

“Bullshit,” Bob barked, turning to tap in a few corrections on the screen. “There is no pregnant man on this ship, I’m not gullible like _Ray_.” He turned a few switches, then stood up, stretching. “Alright, she’s all yours.”

Gerard nodded, kicking back. “Alright, but he is pregnant!” he called over his shoulder, chuckling as settled down for the watch while Bob got some sleep. The ship would fly herself while Bob rested through the sleep-cycle, but somebody needed to be awake in case something went wrong. They also needed somebody there for any news coming in through the comm-screen.

Gerard closed his eyes and started humming, contemplating everything that had gone down recently. “Fuck, MikeyWay, wherever you are, you better fuckin’ be safe. Or fuck it, I’ll kill you if you’re dead,” he whispered to himself, chuckling almost painfully at his sad attempt at humor.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gerard had nearly forgot about Brendon and Spencer until they docked and Brendon came, supporting a still-limping Spencer, to see what was going on up on the bridge. “Where are we?” Brendon asked, looking a little pale.

Gerard smiled. “Oh hey!” he said. “Didn’t see you guys for the entire cycle,” he said, looking at Spencer. “How’s the leg?”

Spencer cringed. “It’s not too bad. I can probably walk without help, but well-“ He nodded at Brendon and made an exasperated face.

“Well excuse me for not wanting you to fall and break your face!” Brendon argued, rolling his eyes. “It’s a pretty face, can you blame me for liking it how it is?”

Gerard smirked, biting his lip as he looked at Spencer. “Well it is a pretty face, I gotta agree.” He glanced past them just as Frank came in. “Hey Frankie, Bob says we’re good. Make sure Ray’s up and ready. We’re all going off to Greg’s first, then probably The Speakeasy if we can’t get any information at Greg’s.”

Frank saluted. “Can do, Gee,” he said, wiggling his fingers at Spencer as he passed. “Don’t fall, kid, you might hurt your adorable little nose- AHH!” Frank yelped and hopped the last few steps when Spencer made a grab for him, snatching on his belt before letting it snap against his skin.

Spencer just grinned as he turned back to Gerard and nodded in Frank’s direction. “I like him, even if he did shoot me.” 

Gerard chuckled, shaking his head. “Alright, well grab some jackets from the closet. Those jumpsuits should be okay for now, but K36F is just an artificial station, not a planet. The atmosphere is bubbled but it’s always cold. There just isn’t enough fuel to make it any warmer than is necessary to keep away the ice.”

Brendon grumbled. “Serious flaw with this whole ‘run away’ plan. I’m from a sunny, hot, humid planet and apparently the rest of the universe is cold and dark.” He snuggled closer to Spencer, still half-supporting him. “You better keep me warm.”

Spencer smiled at the big pout Brendon was giving him. “You weren’t complaining when I gave you all of the covers. My injured ass nearly froze and you were toasty and warm in all of the blankets-“

“I need heat for two!” Brendon argued and Spencer scoffed.

“Lanoans are a species of human, humans are all self-regulating warm-blooded mammals. You are always warm, therefore what is _in you_ is never cold,” he argued and Brendon just smirked.

“Well maybe I’d have shared the warmth if you had been in me-“

“WHOA!” Gerard cried, covering his ears. “Okay, okay, okay I’m scarred for life now, let’s just… go,” he suggested, flapping a hand at the door. “Please!”

Brendon rolled his eyes. “Hey, I got a baby in me somehow,” he said pointedly.

Spencer just smiled apologetically at Gerard. “Sorry, he’s just really happy to be able to talk out loud about the baby around other people now that we’re not on Terros anymore.” Gerard watched them leave the bridge and shook his head, very much amused at their new little stowaways.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Spencer and Brendon kept their heads down, just in case, as they disembarked from the ship, heading from the dock, which was enclosed, not glass like they had expected, out through a large doorway onto a busy, bustling street. Brendon gasped as he looked up and saw the _entire_ station was surrounded by a dome. “Wow.”

Spencer smiled. “This is what the station where I got captured from looked like,” he noted and Brendon frowned, curling his fingers around Spencer’s forearm tenderly, leading him after Gerard. 

Frank turned back from Gerard’s side to glance back past them at Bob and Ray. “You bastards better fuckin’ come with us this time. No leaving us to go supply shopping, there’s a perfectly good few shots with your names on them!”

Bob shot him a flat look. “And what’ll you do if we don’t? Try and shoot us in the foot and end up killing us?”

Spencer rolled his eyes. “Yeah it’s funny unless you are the one he shot,” he said, putting a hand on his leg as he hobbled along, leaning a bit more weight onto Brendon.

When they got to a pub with a sign reading ‘Greg’s pub’, they turned and headed inside. Brendon and Spencer both looked somewhat terrified of all the rough looking people roaming around. They both stuck to Gerard quite closely. He was beginning to wonder why the hell they picked the one of the crew that looked most like a girl to be their cover.

When they approached the bar, Gerard spotted the bartender and raised a hand. “Patrick Stump!”

The tiny little barkeep looked up and smiled brightly. “Gerard Way! What are you doing in? I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Gerard nodded for Brendon and Spencer to go sit at the table Bob, Ray, and Frank has picked, then turned back. “Is Pete back? I couldn’t get him on comms anywhere, dude,” he asked, and Patrick smiled.

“Oh yeah, they came in a cycle or so ago. Not long at all. I think he came home and slept and showered then headed straight to The Speakeasy. You know how he is,” he said, then glanced over Gerard’s shoulder. “Hey, where’s Mikey, you two only seem separated when he’s holed up with Pete somewhere.”

Gerard’s heart leapt and he fought to keep his eye dry. “Yeah, that’s why I’m looking for Pete,” he said weakly.

Patrick’s face paled and his eyes widened. “Gerard, where’s Mikey?”

Gerard groaned. “No fucking idea, Patrick. He’s- we got separated. We all got separated and he never came back. We can’t- we’ve been looking. We worried he got caught by some Gens but we hacked in and he’s not listed as captured. He’s still got a bounty on him, so we figure bounty hunters got him. We’ve been looking for about thirty-six cycles now.”

Patrick just hissed. “Holy shit, Gerard. Thirty-six cycles?! It’s been that long since you talked to Pete?”

Gerard sighed. “The first few cycles we didn’t panic, I figured maybe they ran off together again, you know how it goes.” Patrick nodded. “Then when we started looking harder and realized it wasn’t that, I tried a lot but never got in touch with Pete. Comms were _out_ wherever the fuck they were.”

Patrick sighed. “Fuck, Pete’s going to lose it. You know they were fighting-“

“The lack of overhearing comm-sex made me figure,” Gerard interrupted, cringing.

Patrick smiled sadly. “That’s Pete alright.” He shook his head. “Alright, you go sit, have something to eat, have a round on me, then I’ll get somebody to get Pete from The Speakeasy.”

Gerard shook his head. “We’re headed there next. I need to see Pete’s cohorts for help.” He pushed off of the sticky bar and headed through the crowd over to the table where everybody else was. He slid into the empty seat beside Frank and glanced around, carefully checking out who all was in. Nobody stood out. A few of them were recognizable from the Confederation’s wanted list, but all in all nobody stood out.

“So what’s up?” Frank asked and Gerard cringed.

“Pete’s here. He landed a few cycles ago. We’re going to The Speakeasy to break it to him and get his friends’ help.” Gerard looked up as he saw a tall man approaching them. He put his hand on his gun, but Bob offered the guy a nod, so Gerard relaxed.

“What’s up, Bryar?!” he asked, setting down a tray. “Yo, Patrick sends these on the house,” he said, passing around the shots.

Bob smiled. “Thanks. Gerard, this is Travis McCoy,” he introduced. “Petty thief who stashed his illegal liquor on my ship once a long time ago. I kicked his ass and then introduced him to Pete and it’s all been downhill from there,” he teased.

“What’s this?” Brendon asked, gesturing to the shot glass.

Gerard reached out and snagged it, shoving it at Frank. “Not for you,” he said and Spencer shrugged when Brendon gave him a questioning look.

“Don’t look at me, Bren,” he said, and Frank snickered.

“Alcohol. Strong shit.” Brendon and Spencer still looked confused and Gerard rolled his eyes.

“Well, maybe Lanoans don’t drink, but keep in mind.” He lowered his voice leaning closer to them. “Do not drink anything anybody gives you, especially here on Clandestine,” he said in a soft voice.

Spencer frowned. “I thought this was a K3-something?”

Gerard nodded. “Yeah, but we all call it Clandestine.” He waved a hand. “Whatever, the point is, I don’t know Lanoan biology, but in humans, alcohol is terrible for a pregnant person’s baby if they drink it. Most everything on this fuckin’ station has alcohol in it, so if one of us doesn’t approve it, don’t drink it.” He frowned. “Actually don’t ingest anything at all. Seriously, just go with stranger-danger but even for friends of ours. Do _not_ drink, smoke, eat, or lick anything at all that somebody offers you.” He looked at Spencer. “You too, just for safety. I’d advise that to anybody who doesn’t know exactly what they’re getting into, but definitely not Brendon,” he said.

Brendon gave him a very serious nod, laying a hand on his middle. “Thanks, I really don’t want to mess up and hurt my baby,” he said with wide, grateful eyes. “Thank you, Gerard.”

“Damn, who’s the new hot kid?” Travis asked, drawing Gerard’s attention back to the rest of the table. He winked at Spencer, who gave him a shocked look, then closed off his expression. “Come on, you gotta name, sexy-“

“None of your business,” Brendon said in a slightly dark voice, sliding closer to Spencer possessively.

Frank giggled, tugging on Travis’s arm. “Dude, dude, it’s like an angry puppy!” he told him, and Travis grinned.

“Oooh so it’s like that, huh?” He winked at Brendon. “Ease up, kid, I’m not gonna move in on your territory!” he defended.

Gerard just smiled. “I don’t think Brendon’s ever had somebody try and hit on Spencer before,” he explained and Brendon blushed some. “Hey, no we get it, he’s always been yours, you’re allowed to get defensive,” he said smiling at how cute Brendon and Spencer were. He chuckled. “You should see my brother and his dysfunctional whatever-the-fuck-they-are, Pete. We’ll meet Pete soon.”

Brendon frowned. “Is…Is your brother the one-“

Gerard nodded solemnly. “His ‘whatever’ doesn’t know he’s missing.” He exchanged a dark look with Brendon. “He has been out of comm link. It’s not uncommon. They don’t seem to mess around with others but they’ll go ages without speaking after fights, then disappear together for a dozen cycles ‘making up’.” He shuddered.

Spencer glanced at Brendon. “We’ve never really fought, have we?” he asked, and Brendon smiled.

“Not really.” He shrugged, leaning his head on Spencer’s shoulder as he faced Gerard. “We’ll bicker some, but mostly we’re best friends, so we’ve always teased each other. We know everything, so we know nothing is meant with hard feelings.”

Spencer curled his arm around him. “We’ve spent the majority if every single cycle in the last eight years together.” He nudged Brendon’s head with his. “I probably know you better than you know yourself.”

Brendon smiled. “Probably.”

Gerard just shook his head, more and more amused by the young couple every time he watched them together.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gerard hated The Speakeasy. The Speakeasy was the name of the underground club owned by Gabe Saporta. It was meant to be a club for criminals, but despite the reputation, the most ‘criminal’ thing going on at The Speakeasy was Gabe’s dress sense, as well as a little bit of bootleg liquor and illegal gambling that went on all over the place. It was one of Pete’s favorite hangouts. He’d even won his ship, The Cobra, from Gabe in a card game years ago. 

The Speakeasy, named because Gabe Saporta was obsessed with the history of Earth culture, especially the shady dealings, was a dark, oppressive atmosphere with loud music, flashing lights, and the dense heat of bodies packed onto the dance floor. The women were plenty, the booze flowed freely, the illicit substances like old timey vodka- a drink outlawed by the Confederation- and actual tobacco cigarettes were always on hand, and all the double-dealing and slick-talking was left to the card tables in the back, not wasted on business transactions.

A younger, less jaded Gerard would’ve probably liked the place, but Gerard was already hardened by the life by the time he stumbled into The Speakeasy, looking to steal his brother back from Wentz so that they could take off. As it currently stood, he really wished he was on the same mission this time. For all their fighting, for all of Pete’s general assholishness, Gerard really believed that Pete Wentz loved Mikey, and he could only imagine how he was going to react to the news that nobody had seen or heard from Mikey Way in going on thirty-seven cycles.

Immediately, Gabe’s friends-slash-employees knew something was wrong when they spotted not only the entire crew of Gerard’s ship, the Oracle of Nyx, but also Patrick himself walking through the throngs of people. Patrick only came when something had went wrong and he needed to collect Pete and/or warm him to get out and lay low.

The bartender, Gabe’s friend Nate, immediately nodded and lifted the counter so that they could head behind the bar and disappear through the door to the back room, the Ultra-VIP section here Gabe himself hung out with his friends.

When they walked in, Gabe looked up with a bright look. “Gerard Way! To what do I owe this visit?!” he cried, only to stop when Pete stood up suddenly, eyes locking on Patrick.

“What’s wrong?” he asked and Patrick walked over, sitting down. Pete looked very confused. Patrick never joined them, he usually warned and left or grabbed Pete and left. “Patrick?”

Gabe, sensing something was up, sent away the others, leaving only himself and one of his good friends, Victoria Asher. Gerard knew he would need her. She was one of the best hackers on Clandestine- which was saying a lot- and would come in handy, so he was glad Gabe let her stay. “Gentlemen,” he said, waiting until everybody was seated. “What seems to be the nature of your visit tonight?” His tone was light, but his eyes weren’t as jocular as usual.

Gerard took a breath, the seriousness finally falling on him. He was in a situation more desperate than any other before had ever been. Patrick saw his struggle and put a hand on Pete’s arm. “Pete…” He trailed off and bit his lip. “Pete, Gerard needs to talk to you-“

“Gerard?” Pete asked sharply, eyes flickering around the table. “I count four-fifths of Nyx’s crew and some extras.” He swallowed suddenly. “You- you never leave only one person on the ship unless that one person is Bryar.”

Gerard bit his lip. “We-“ He shook his head. “I need your help, Saporta.” He looked up at him, eyes flickering to Pete, though he couldn’t even look at him as he spoke. “Mikey’s gone,” he choked out. He flinched and Frank laid a hand on his wrist, thumb sliding up his sleeve to stroke his pulse point, a point of contact to keep him calm. “We- we all got split up on Skadus-9 and we all got back to the ship… except Mikey.”

“WHAT?!” Pete cried, standing up. “Skadus-9?! The fucking Gens-“

“It wasn’t Gens,” Frank spoke up. Patrick grabbed Pete and pulled him down, though he was clearly panicking. “We hacked the Wanted database, he’s still listed. If he was caught he’d be off the list.”

Gerard nodded. “We figured- we figured he was caught by a bounty hunter, cause we didn’t find a-“ He flinched, eyes clenched tight. “A sign of his body.”

“Then we go after them!” Pete cried and Gerard groaned.

“Fuck, Wentz, that’s what we’ve been doing! It took about five cycles before we locked onto the bounty hunter angle. We’ve spent the last thirty or so cycles tracking down hunters, tricking them into letting us dock, then boarding and raiding them.” He shook his head. “We tracked the last ship for cycles, followed them damn near to the Rim, barely still in Confederation control. We boarded and searched but there was no sign. We killed some hunters, picked up a pair of refugees, but didn’t find Mikey. We had nowhere else to go. No more leads.” He shook his head. “We worked out the best plan was to come to the one place where there’s always somebody that knows somebody who heard things,” he said softly, turning his cold, pale eyes to Gabe.

Pete looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach. “He’s- Mikey has been missing for over _thirty_ cycles and nobody- nobody’s-“

“I tried,” Gerard said softly. “I did try, Wentz. I couldn’t get comm-link. You and I must’ve been too far out of range. 

Gabe nodded. “MikeyWay is good people,” he said seriously. He glanced over at Victoria. “Go check the Wanted database again. If he’s marked captured now we can trace him and bust him out. If his bounty is gone or he’s off the list, I can find somebody who can trace him. If it’s unchanged, we’ll start spreading the word.” He turned to Gerard as the tall, long-legged woman left the room. “Gerard, seriously… I’m sorry,” he said in a shockingly earnest tone. 

Pete startled them all by jumping up and starting away with angry, purposeful strides. Patrick stood up. “Pete Wentz, stop right there, don’t do anything stupid-“

Pete whirled around. “It’s _Mikey_ , Patrick!” he called in a strangled, tight voice that cracked as he breathed out a sob. “He’s- it’s Mikey. _My_ Mikey.” His hoarse voice spoke volumes for every word he didn’t say. “Over a month, Patrick. Skadus- fucking- 9!”

“I know, Pete,” Patrick said gently. “But you rushing out and being stupid won’t help him a damn bit and you know it.”

“I can’t just sit here-“

“And you won’t, Pete,” Frank spoke up. “We need your help. You can help us, just let us work things out and plan something-“ Pete scoffed and Frank sighed. “Pete, we all want him back, we know how you feel-”

Pete stalked over. “You don’t know shit! You fucking know nothing about how I feel!” he shouted. “He’s my Mikey. He’s- he’s _part of me_! I’ve known him-“

“Well what about Gerard, huh?!” Frank snapped, glaring. “Gerard is his fucking brother, Pete! I get it, he’s your Mikey, but you know what?! He’s been Gerard’s Mikey since he was _born_ you arrogant fuck-“

“Frankie,” Gerard intercepted, shaking his head. “Just… don’t.” He ducked his head, rubbing at his temples. “Pete, trust me, I went through every angry thought you have too. But rash decisions is what sent us on our stupid pointless warpath. We didn’t find Mikey then and you won’t find him if you storm out and go kicking down doors.” He looked up and saw Pete’s face wilting. “I know, Pete. Maybe I don’t know how you feel, but it’s my fucking _baby brother_ ,” he choked out, eyes tearing. “As much as we don’t get along, I know you love him, Pete. I know it… but it’s my _job_ to look after him.” He sniffled, eyes wide as a tear broke free of the prison of his lashes and streaked his dirty face. “He’s- he’s the only family I have. He’s my best friend and my baby brother and he’s probably the only reason I’m here right now.” He shook his head. “So don’t think you are the only one desperate to find him.”

The quiet that followed Gerard’s tearful statement persisted for many moments, even silencing Gabe. The silence was broken, however, by the sharp sound of a growling stomach from Gerard’s right, loud enough to be heard in the pin-drop stillness of the room.

Frank cracked a smile and Gerard raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Brendon. Brendon blushed but gave him an expression that said he refused to be ashamed. “Didn’t you eat at Greg’s?”

Brendon huffed. “Hello, _pregnant_!” he cried indignantly, eliciting laughs from Gerard and his crew.

“Wait, what?!” They trailed off, however, when they realized Patrick, Pete, and Gabe had no idea. Patrick pointed at him. “I don’t know if you learned biology on your planet as kids, but boys don’t have babies.”

Pete hummed. “Well not _humans_ , but he looks pretty human to me,” he said suspiciously.

Gerard shook his head. “This is Brendon and Spencer. Brendon’s Lanoan. His species _do_ have male pregnancies.”

Gabe just snickered. “Sure thing, dude. I’ll go see what we’ve got to eat-“

“Gabe, he’s really pregnant,” Frank interrupted. “Seriously, no jokes.”

Gabe just wave a hand smirking. “I got this, little Frankie-“

Spencer however gave him a withering look, sliding his arm through Brendon’s. “No, really.” He leveled him with a glare that almost scared _Gerard_. “He’s fine.”

“Chill pretty, I won’t try anything funny, we should have some fruit,” Gabe argued, and Spencer narrowed his eyes to slits.

“Alright, but if you think this is a joke and you give him something that hurts our child, I will rip you apart,” he positively _growled_ , making even Gabe shrink back a little.

“Uh… yeah, okay,” he said in a tight voice before darting out of the room.

Brendon just smirked. “Why Spencer Smith, some may say you’re protective,” he teased, reaching up to brush his bangs out of his eyes.

Spencer rolled his eyes, a common reaction apparently. “Brendon, I know you’re hungry, but don’t trust anything he gives you. Seriously. I don’t think you should risk it,” he said, laying his hand on Brendon’s middle. “The risk is too much.”

“Wait-“ Pete’s voice startled them some. “So… you’re for serious? You’re fucking with us?”

Brendon smiled brightly. “No way, I’m pregnant!” he gushed, lacing his fingers with Spencer’s over his middle. He giggled slightly. “I’m actually far enough along my abdomen is solid. I’m not getting fat, but it’s close.”

Patrick just frowned. “But… how did you get pregnant?”

Frank giggled evilly. “Well Patrick, when a prince and his slave love each other veeeeeerrry much-“

“Oh my God, stop!” Gerard cringed, putting a hand over Frank’s mouth. “Seriously, they’re children, I like to pretend a fairy kissed his tummy or something, dude. Seriously.”

Spencer sighed. “We’re not children. Sure, we’re pretty young to be having a baby compared to most Lanoans, but I’m human-human and he matured fast. It just happened.” He looked at Patrick. “We’re not children. I’m eighteen and he’s nineteen-“

“Holy shit, they are kids!” Pete cried, eyes wide. “Dude… how did you end up with Gerard that young?! Where are your parents?”

Brendon rolled his eyes. “Well, Spencer’s parents are probably still mourning the loss of their only son eight years after the fact, seeing as my father bought him from slave traders who captured him in a food riot and stole him from his family. And _my_ parents wanted to execute Spencer for loving me, and murder our child after I give birth because it’ll be the only time I’ll be too weak to take it and run,” he said honestly, not pulling his punches at all.

Patrick shook his head. “So when Frank said a prince and a slave…”

Spencer nodded. “Brendon was a lonely child, being the only small child left, and his father wanted a playmate for him, and I’m honestly lucky he bought me, because the only other use for a ten year old boy would be mine working or sex slavery.” He smiled. “Brendon wasn’t like his father though. We were friends as children, we became lovers later on,” he said affectionately.

Brendon smiled at him. “It took us so damn long to stop being stupid about it, too,” he giggled, clearly getting a bit lost in memories and Spencer’s eyes as they gazed at each other and spoke in distant voices. “I was about fifteen or so when I realized the way I felt for you wasn’t just ‘best friends’.”

Spencer smiled and stroked his cheek tenderly. “Probably about the same for me.”

Brendon rolled his eyes. “Yet you didn’t kiss me until I was nearly eighteen and you were seventeen,” he chastised, leaning his forehead against Spencer’s.

Spencer pecked his lips. “And now only a year and a half later and we’re finally free to kiss whenever we want-“

“Ew, please tell me Mikey and I never get that gross,” Pete said with a grin, only to sober some when he clearly remembered Mikey’s fate.

Gerard smiled sadly. “It’s pretty hard to put up with. You two are disgusting.”

Ray grinned. “And you aren’t young lovers finally free from the threat of _death_ and baby-murdering. So it’s not even excusable like theirs!”

Brendon blushed and Spencer smiled shyly. “Sorry,” he said, letting Brendon hide his face against Spencer’s chest. “I just…” He shrugged with a sweet look at Brendon’s hair. “It wasn’t even two weeks ago that I thought I was going to be executed and never see my child born, just because I loved the wrong person. And then it was worse and I thought I was going to die without being able to save my child from being murdered because I was its father.”

Patrick hummed. “You know, for teenagers who lost your entire way of living because of it, you both seem pretty… not exactly upset that you’re pregnant,” he pointed out to them.

Brendon _glowed_ as he smiled big and bright. “Oh no way! You see, I’ve known I liked boys since I was little. I never thought girls were pretty or anything really. So I always knew eventually I’d have children, that I could bear children,” he said excitedly. “Only…” He shrugged, smile dimming a little. “I realized I loved Spencer and I was terrified when I started getting offers of marriage around that same time that I’d be forced to marry someone I couldn’t love and have their children. I would’ve still loved my children,” he urged. “But from the start, I wanted to have _Spencer’s_ children. I knew it wasn’t possible, I’d never be allowed to have children out of wedlock without being the shame of the kingdom and I’d never be able to marry my slave, but even when I knew it was going to ruin us, finding out I was pregnant…” He trailed off and beamed. “It was the most wonderful thing because ruin or not, I was going to have a child that was born out of love. And it was such a beautiful feeling. Even when I thought I’d never see him again-“ He reached out and grabbed Spencer’s hand. “I still knew I’d always have part of him, even if I ended up locked away on a mountain, because I was pregnant with his baby.”

Spencer nodded. “I felt the same,” he added. “But then…” He shuddered. “The idea of someone hurting our child, killing our baby-“

Brendon nodded emphatically, eyes full of pain. “That’s the worst thought to ever cross my mind.” He smiled down at the hand on his middle. “But now, thanks to Gerard and Frank and Ray…” He gave Gerard a small smile. “We have a chance.”

Spencer cringed. “Even if they shot me,” he said, glowering at Frank once more. Everybody just laughed at Frank’s expression.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
It had been hours since the party had died down and all the patrons had left, but the crew of the Nyx, Patrick, Pete, and Gabe’s friends were all still hanging around upstairs, in Gabe’s apartment where they discussed strategies while the hacker did her work.

Patrick sat with Pete curled into his side, clinging to his friend like he’d shatter if he let go. Brendon was using Spencer’s lap as a prop for his legs as he finally ate some food that was safe, after they convinced Gabe that he really was pregnant. “So, if you two are all-“ Brendon waved a hand at Patrick and Pete. “What’s the deal with you and Gerard’s brother?” he asked curiously, taking another bite of the strange fruit Gabe had given him.

Pete smiled from his spot tucked halfway into Patrick’s jacket. “Oh no, me and Patrick are just friends,” he said and Patrick sighed.

“Yeah,” he said, noticing the suspicious look Spencer gave him. “That is exactly why I can’t get a date. Anybody who might possibly find a fat little human who owns a space pirate’s bar attractive assumes this clinging thing he does means I’m off the market. I’ll never get laid again,” he groaned.

Pete grinned. “If you’d just take up our buddy Travie-“

“That man is not interested in me, Pete, you know it,” he argued, then smiled at Spencer and Brendon. “Guy who hands around my club a lot. He’s a friend who likes to flirt, nothing more.”

Brendon hummed. “Why do you own a bar that’s named Greg’s. Your name isn’t Greg.”

Patrick snickered. “The guy I bought it from was named Greg, but thanks for your amazing observational skills,” he teased.

Spencer shot him a look. “Don’t tease him.” He curled his hand possessively around Brendon’s ankle. “So, why is this place so… lawless?” he asked curiously.

Pete scoffed. “One of the last safe havens for outlaws in the universe. The fucking Gens know it too. They can’t take over, there was some treaty a long ass time ago, back when everything was still based on Earth, before The Wars, but the point of it was that K36F can’t be claimed by any government as its own to be controlled. It’s neutral ground. They did that so that deals between governments could be made, back when there was no Confederation, just individually operated governments and kingdoms. So now, there’s few places left. It isn’t on any planet, it doesn’t orbit any stars, it’s all artificial, fully man-made. It’s within Confederation limits so the laws of the Confederation exist, but they can’t officially police it, so only people who get caught in the act can be arrested while they’re on Clandestine.” He shrugged. “However, that means a lot of undercover Gens stake this place out. New faces aren’t to be trusted around here. Anything serious enough to get you caught, you keep it on the down low.”

Brendon huffed. “But I don’t understand any of that! Terros isn’t an active part of the Confederation. Lanoans have private sovereignty since we’re so close to the Rim. I don’t even know what the hell ‘Confederation’ even means. And I gather that Gens are government people, but _why_ are they called Gens?” he asked, pouting. “It’s so frustrating to not understand things.”

Pete smiled at his little pout. “You’re adorable,” he admitted, then shook his head, chuckling. “Alright, a confederation is a group of governments, for our purposes, that are in league with each other. It’s basically independent governing bodies who all have a ‘strength in numbers’ type deal where they work together on things to protect each other’s sovereignty. Most of the Universe- the inhabited parts anyways- are members of the Confederation of Thylandra. All the presidents, all the kings, all the CEOs, all the heads of whatever the planet, moon, station, insert-body-here- they all are somewhat under the control of Chancellor Alexandra Xerodian.”

Patrick nodded, petting Pete’s hair. “And the term ‘Gens’ is slang for the Confederate Agents. It comes from the Confederate Code. There’s a line that calls for submitting to monitoring and full disclosure to the Confederation by all citizens of the governments that it includes. The line says something about the lack of rights is to ‘engender a state of ease’, and from that somehow the term ‘Gens’ came to be. It’s all old stuff from before our time. I’m shocked you didn’t know some of this, at least, Spencer.”

Spencer rolled his eyes. “I’m lucky I can read, okay? Anything I really know, Brendon taught me so I could help him when he had work from his tutors.” He shook his head. “We were on The Moon until I was eight. When water started to run out, my family left on a transport and we went between refugee camps all over the galaxy before finally making a break for other places in the universe. We were nearly in Andromeda when a food riot broke out at the camp on Delta-3 station. I got captured into slavery and I barely remember any of it before Brendon. I don’t have any idea what The Moon looked like, I don’t remember any of the stations other than Delta-3…” He cringed. “I don’t even remember my mother’s name,” he stressed. “I remember being ten and being bought by the King. I remember going to live in the palace with Brendon and being told I was supposed to play with him and be his friend, no matter what. And I did,” he said simply.

Pete smirked impishly. “Seems to me you were a bit more than his friend,” he teased.

Brendon grinned up at Spencer. “I think he was always more than my friend,” he joked, looking over at Pete. “But no, this is still mostly new,” he said, gesturing between them. “I mean, it was only about a year and a half ago that he even kissed me for the first time. It isn’t like we’ve been secret lovers for _years_ , God I can only imagine how bad we would’ve been at hiding it.”

Patrick nodded vigorously. “You two make goofy, sappy eyes at each other.” He paused then tilted his head. “A lot.”

Spencer smiled brightly, turning to glance at Brendon. “We’ll, you have to realize, we’re still ridiculously happy. I mean, we’re both terribly sorry we’re so happy when everything has gone so wrong,” he said earnestly, giving Pete an apologetic look. “Trust me when I say we both understand how horrible the situation is right now.”

Brendon nodded. “God yes, I spent a good few cycles waiting for Spencer to get caught. I knew my father would make me attend his execution and watch him die,” he said, shifting until he was able to slide under Spencer’s arm. “So, you know, we can’t help be happy,” he said apologetically.

Pete sighed. “No, trust me, I’d probably be ridiculously happy too if I’d dodged a bullet like you guys have.” He smiled at them genuinely. “You guys are so young and in love. I remember being young and in love. Only it was mostly just lust and obsession,” he allowed, tilting his head to think. “Actually, I think I was in love with you,” he said to Patrick. “Like, around mid-twenties, I’m pretty sure I was really in love with you. Cause we never had sex, so it couldn’t have been just liking sex.”

Patrick cringed. “Ew, thank you for not trying,” he said and Brendon giggled.

Spencer curled his arm around Brendon. “Pretty sure we were in love a long, long time before there was any of that going on,” he said with a grin. “Maybe not _after_ we figured out it was mutual, but… pretty sure there was a good solid two or so years of loving you before I grew some balls,” Spencer admitted.

Pete made a small sound of distress, looking up at Patrick. “I’ve never told Mikey I love him,” he said in a broken voice. “Patrick- Patrick what if I never get to tell him?! What if he’s dead and he never knew-“

Patrick shushed him, hugging is friend. “He knew, Pete. Even if you never said it, only an idiot would suspect you don’t love MikeyWay.” He kissed his hair and held him close. “It’s okay, Pete. We’ll get him back and you can tell him all you want.”

Brendon gave Pete’s broken expression a terrified glance, turning to look at Spencer with wide, uneasy eyes. Spencer just smiled sadly and ruffled Brendon’s hair, curling his arm around Brendon’s shoulders again before absently resting his hand on Brendon’s middle, stroking his middle almost reverently.

Brendon closed his eyes, though the tension in his jaw didn’t go away. Spencer spared Pete a glance before closing his own eyes, resting his face against the top of Brendon’s head. They grew quiet on their side of the room as the dark aura descended on their little group once again.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Spencer walked over to the table screen where Gerard and Gabe were discussing and moving maps while the others watched. “Hey, has anybody got somewhere Brendon can sleep?” he asked, not even caring that he cut Gabe off mid-sentence.

Gabe cocked an eyebrow. “What, the couch not good enough?”

Spencer narrowed his eyes just enough to make his face look scary. “He’s been sleeping in a bunk for the past few cycles, he needs a bed-“

“Spence, stop,” Brendon said as he appeared at his side. “I know this might come as a shock to you, but I can actually deal with less than perfect sleeping conditions. I mean, I knew when I ran that I wouldn’t be likely to get the same luxuries I did as a prince anywhere else,” he said, sliding his hand to Spencer’s elbow to uncross his arms.

Spencer huffed. “You’re pregnant, you shouldn’t be sleeping on cramped cots and in tiny bunks and on couches, Brendon! You need better rest!”

“Spencer,” Brendon said gently, sliding his hands into Spencer’s, uncurling his tense fingers. “I’m okay. And hey, the couch isn’t much worse than the bunks on Gerard’s ship. And the bunks on his ship were better than the cots on the transport.” Spencer’s shoulders lost some of their tension as Brendon smiled up at him. “I’m a little guy, I don’t need so much space.”

Gabe just snickered and Frank grinned, both clearly amused as they watched the angry teenager relax just at Brendon’s soothing voice and sneaky touches. “Whipped,” Gabe said to Frank, who nodded.

“Oh yeah!”

Gerard glared and elbows Frank. “That’s not exactly appropriate, since he was actually someone’s slave,” he hissed and Frank frowned apologetically. “Gabe, get Nate to bunk with somebody else for a few cycles. You’ve got a separate room for every buddy you’ve got they can share long enough to let the pregnant kid have a decent bed.”

Gabe smirked. “Yeah, no problem. The kid really should sleep better.” He reached out and ruffled Brendon’s hair. “You don’t want a stupid kid just because you didn’t sleep well.”

Brendon shot him an annoyed look but patted Spencer’s chest. “There you go then. No more bitching about me not sleeping comfortably,” he said and Spencer shrugged, looking smug.

“I don’t care how bitchy I have to be if it means you don’t have to sleep on a couch.” He smiled over at Gabe. “Thanks.” Spencer and Brendon followed Gabe through the sliding door into the next part of the house and Gerard chuckled, shaking his head.

When Spencer and Gabe returned, Gerard looked up at Spencer before nudging Frank to get his attention. “You really get defensive, kid,” he said and Spencer shrugged.

“Anything for Brendon, you know?”

Gabe just smirked. “No, kid, you really get all like… bitchy.”

Spencer narrowed his eyes, glaring at the taller man. “ _Anything_ for Brendon,” he stressed.

Gerard eyed him curiously. “Why do I get the feeling that ‘anything’ is a lot darker than we all heard?”

Spencer flinched. “Well, clearly he didn’t need a playmate as a teenager,” he said simply. He looked down. “Let’s just say, there’s always enemies of any royal family, and who else is better to trust with the safety of the youngest prince than the boy who spent every cycle with him since he was a child?”

Frank cringed. “Who’d you kill?”

Spencer sighed. “One of the men working in the kitchens was pouring something into the soup I was meant to be picking up to take to Brendon. When I caught him in the act, he grabbed a bread knife.” He looked away. “He slipped and dropped his knife and I took the bottle he’d been pouring from and sat on him and poured it down his throat.” He shrugged, wiping the dark look off his face. “But whatever, I mean, when he started choking and coughing up blood and died, I really wasn’t that traumatized as the rest of the kitchen staff. I mean, I don’t like knowing I did that, but _Brendon_ would’ve eaten poisoned soup and died that same way.” 

Gerard just gave him a smile and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, it is how it is, kid.” He shook his head. “No matter what, it’s never easy killing somebody, even if you have to do it. Life is dirty and you have to have priorities. Clearly, Brendon is yours and I can respect that,” he said softly, making Spencer smile a little.

“Thanks.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the table. “So, what do you guys _do_?” he asked, looking around. “I mean…when you aren’t… well,” he nodded at the screen below his elbows where there was a map of somewhere and a picture of a guy he assumed was Gerard’s brother. “You’re criminals, right?”

Frank grinned. “Well, yeah,” he said then pushed his hair behind his ear. “The thing is, we might steal shit and all, and we do steal a lot of shit,” he said and Gerard snickered. “But I mean, there’s still a moral obligation going on.” He nodded at the table and swiped his hand to clear it before pulling up another screen. “Like this? Sure, we may pickpocket people in bars, or steal a transport or two on a planet to get around, but this is what we do a lot of the time.”

Spencer looked and saw it looked like floor plans to something. “What is it?”

“This,” Gerard spoke up, “is a prison. The Confederation keeps political prisoners here. This was our last target before we lost Mikey. The guy we busted out got captured for killing three Gens who were chasing a girl down an alley with-“ He made a disgusted face. “certain intentions.”

Spencer gaped. “They locked a guy up for keeping a girl from getting raped?! What is that about?” 

Frank made a huffing sound. “Exactly. Let’s just say the law and right don’t always walk hand in hand on some planets and stations.” He nodded. “Look at you, you were captured as a child by slave traders and the Confederation knows those bastards operate and they never stop them! It’s ‘illegal’ but nobody admits it happens so nothing gets DONE!” He waved a hand. “And people spend so much time arresting people for running illegal liquor between stations but they don’t give a damn when the mining colonies out near the Rim buy slaves and work them to death before buying more. Or all the fucking refugees who can’t get any help because they aren’t under the Confederation’s control and end up selling themselves in brothels on shady stations just to stay alive, and-“

Gabe rolled his eyes. “Slow down, ankle biter,” he said, patting Frank’s head mockingly. “I think he gets it. You’re vigilantes in pirates clothing.” He turned to Spencer. “I’m a businessman. I have no better intentions than money in my pockets, homie,” he said, laying a hand over his heart. “The only reason Frank hasn’t shot me for the fifth time is because I promised to stop the prostitution in the back rooms if he would get me better goods for the bar.”

Spencer just chuckled. “Yeah, he’s the right height to punch you in the dick, I think that’s the right choice-“

“I AM NOT SHORT!” Frank cried, glaring. “I will fucking kick you in the face-“

“Doubtful,” Gabe said and Frank shot him a dark look, putting a hand on the butt of his blaster. “Hey, hey, no shooting me! You promised on your mom’s grave!”

Frank huffed. “Yeah well you’re lucky my mother was a fuckin’ saint or I’d _end you_.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Frank woke up only to roll over and find the other side of the bed empty. He reached out only to find it cold. He sat up and glanced over at where Ray and Bob were conked out on the bigger bed. Gabe Saporta’s place above The Speakeasy had more beds than a lodging house because his friends crashed out all the time.

Frank climbed out of bed and headed out into the hall and, sure enough, saw a light from the main lounge down the hall. He headed down, passing by nothing but silent rooms, until he got to the doorway. He looked out and shook his head. Gerard was standing at the table screen with a stylus marker in his hand, scribbling things out and writing something else. “Gee?” Frank whispered sadly as he walked over to the table.

Gerard looked up and Frank saw the pain in his eyes that he tried his hardest to hide from everybody else. “What’s up, Frankie?” Gerard asked, and Frank didn’t miss how his voice cracked.

Frank silently walked over and slid his arms around Gerard’s middle, pressing his face into the space between Gerard’s neck and shoulder. “Gee, you can’t do this to yourself.”

Gerard relaxed some, leaning against Frank. “I can’t sleep, Frank. I just…” He shook his head and let his head fall back, a little too tall for it to be comfortable to rest his head on Frank’s shoulder. “I’m not sure what to do anymore,” he whispered. “I just can’t work out what the hell happened to him, Frankie.”

Frank crushed his eyes shut. “I know, Gerard. I now,” he said, leaning his temple against Gerard’s neck. “We’ll find him. Even if-“ He flinched. “Even if it’s not a happy ending to the story, we will find him. I don’t care if everybody else gives up, I’ll help you get answers, even if we never find him. I hope we do and I’m confident we will,” he added quickly. “But even if we don’t, I won’t ever stop helping you.”

Gerard turned around and curled his arms around the smaller man’s shoulders as he started crying. Frank felt a lump in his throat because Gerard fought so hard to hold it all in. The tears when he confronted Pete were the closest to breaking he had come and Frank knew Gerard needed it. “I’m so scared, Frankie,” Gerard whispered tearfully, crushing his face into Frank’s shoulder. “I don’t know what to do. He’s- he’s _Mikey_. He never gave up on me, not once. He never left my side for anything, even when I was at my worst. I was- I was so useless after everybody else and then Mikey was all I have and now I don’t even know if I still have him. What if he’s dead?” he sobbed. “He is the only family I have. Everybody else is gone. My parents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins… _everybody_ else is dead! Mikey is _it_ and if he’s gone- what will I do, Frank?” he asked, sniffling weakly. “He’s been here all my life. He’s always been there. I don’t remember not having him with me. He’s my b-best friend!”

Frank turned and kissed his dirty hair, holding him close. “I know, Gerard, I know. We’ll find him, okay? And you are not alone. Never will be,” he promised, pulling back to look at Gerard’s tearstained cheeks. “You always got me and Ray and Bob, you know? No matter what.”

Gerard nodded, standing up to wipe his face. “I know, I just… I love you guys, all of you are like my brothers… but it still ain’t Mikey.”

Frank nodded. “I know,” he said simply. He took Gerard’s hand. “Come back to bed. You need rest. I don’t think you’ve slept more than naps in _cycles_.”

Gerard agreed, and turned off the table screen before taking Frank’s hand, letting Frank lead him back to bed. “Thanks,” he said, and Frank smiled at him tiredly.

“No need man, no need at all.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Brendon was sitting on the floor watching Gabe and his friends running around the table screen fighting when Gerard came out. Gerard raised an eyebrow. “Should you be on the floor? It’s probably dirty,” he said and Brendon smiled brightly, startling Gerard some. Nobody smiled that brightly anymore.

“Shockingly, my back doesn’t hurt as bad on a hard surface.” Brendon shrugged. “He doesn’t have any hard chairs and Spencer gets antsy when I sit on a table, like he’s scared it’s going to break or something. I told him I’m not THAT fat, but I guess he’s just worried I’ll fall and hurt the baby,” he said with a small smile.

Gerard frowned. “Your back hurts already?” he asked and Brendon nodded.

“I told you guys, I’m pretty pregnant. I mean, I don’t look like I’m showing because it isn’t round, but I’m a really skinny boy usually,” he pointed out. “I’m like… curvy, so looking straight on the sides and a little thicker around the middle on the front is a good size or two bigger than I usually am.” He stood up and grabbed Gerard’s hand as he pulled his shirt up some. “Here, feel.” Gerard felt extremely awkward when Brendon pushed Gerard’s rough, scarred up, ugly hands to his pale, unmarked skin. “See how it’s hard here?” He pressed Gerard’s palm to his lower belly. “Then, on the sides, it’s fat,” he said, moving Gerard’s hand.

Gerard was somewhat amused at how Brendon _was_ squishy on the sides but his belly itself was pretty solid behind his navel. “That’s weird,” he said, and Brendon smiled.

“Yeah, that’s my baby!” he said brightly, letting go of Gerard’s hand so he could pull his shirt back down. He rested his hands on his middle. “I would look a lot fatter if I wasn’t such a skinny boy naturally. I’m _tiny_.”

“He’s not joking,” Spencer said, coming into the room. He smiled at Gerard as he slid an arm around Brendon. “Normally, when he’s being annoying, I can just pick him up and throw him over my shoulder. Now, even if I wasn’t too worried about hurting the baby, he’s too heavy.”

Gerard snickered. “Sounds like Frank. Only he doesn’t get tossed around, he uses Bob and Ray as ladders. He’ll just climb on Bob to see further and shit. Although he’s even smaller than you,” he said to Brendon, who smiled.

“Yeah, but being a badass space pirate makes him seem to take up more space.”

“Who’s a badass space pirate?” Gabe asked, slinging his arms around Gerard from behind. “I heard badass and thought somebody called my name,” he said, winking at Spencer.

“Frank,” Gerard answered, shrugging Gabe off. “Brendon thinks he’s a badass space pirate so it doesn’t matter how little he is.”

Gabe smirked. “I like ‘em little,” he said, winking at Brendon, who flushed.

Spencer glared, curling his arm tighter around Brendon. Gerard just smirked at the way Gabe flinched. “Ow, my _soul_.” Gerard giggled.

Brendon just leaned his head against Spencer’s shoulder with a smug look. “Sorry Gabe, Spencer will kill you,” he said, turning to kiss Spencer’s cheek. 

Gabe suddenly smirked. “I’m down for a threesome-“

“Don’t make me actually rip your arms off and beat you with them,” Spencer said darkly, and Gerard cackled, ducking out of Gabe’s hold.

“And that’s my cue to leave before there’s bloodshed!” He walked off and sidled up to Frank at the table screen. “So, Saporta is about to get murdered, who wants to watch?” he asked and Frank giggled.

“What did he do this time?” he asked and Gerard cackled.

“He’s flirting with the kid and Spencer’s getting defensive. Should be a good showdown.”

Bob smirked. “Saporta’s going to get murdered.”

“Why’s Saporta going to get murdered?” Pete asked, coming up to lean on the table screen beside Frank.

Ray snickered. “Hitting on Brendon in front of Spencer.”

Pete eyed the way Gabe was slowly backing away from the couple and chuckled. “They’re cute. God, they’re so _young_ ,” he said, shaking his head. “Been a long time since I saw anybody that young.”

Gerard shrugged. “Well, we live in spaceships and on a pirate station. How many people around this station do you think have _children_?” he asked and Pete nodded.

“I haven’t saw a child in years,” he agreed. He sighed. “I think I was on one of the moons out near VG-190 last time I saw a child.”

Frank hummed. “I wonder why so few people have kids now?” he asked, looking at Gerard. “I mean, life is harder on the types of planets we visit, but in general, most people _want_ children. It’s human nature. Most of us are still humans out here in inhabited systems.”

Bob shook his head. “I hear other pilots talking. Humans are definitely on the decline. I mean, it’s just so hard to even reproduce now. Human fertility has really suffered since our species left Earth. And you would think the generations would adapt, but I guess it hasn’t been long enough for our DNA to adapt.” He cringed. “And then now the adults that were born from Earth parents are such a lower number than the ones who were born on Earth because our generation’s kids had trouble surviving Deep Space. The cold and the recycled air’s germs are bad enough for healthy adults, so a solid third of our generation’s children didn’t make it to adulthood.”

Gerard cringed. “That’s so sad. Fuck, maybe that’s why you don’t see so many children? People don’t want to risk having them and them dying.”

Ray just shook his head. “That would kill me. I mean, I know better than to think I’ll ever be able to get married and have kids, the life we live will probably kill me long before then, but I loved children when I still lived on a planet.”

Frank glanced over at Spencer and Brendon. “Shit, how do you think their baby will handle it?” he asked uncertainly. “I mean, it’s interspecies so God knows what kind of biology it will have, and then Brendon’s species live in tropical, never-dark conditions.”

Gerard frowned. “You think we should find somebody who’s going somewhere warm that can take care of them?” he asked the others. “Hell, for that matter, don’t you think we should probably find a doctor? I mean, I know absolutely nothing about pregnant people, but he hasn’t ever been seen by a doctor, and don’t they go to doctors a lot?” he asked and everybody else just shrugged.

Pete rolled his eyes. “The dumbass hasn’t ever seen a doctor?!” he asked and Ray shrugged.

“He couldn’t tell anybody back on his planet in order to see a doctor and since they they’ve been running,” he answered and Frank turned to look over at them.

“Brendon!” he called, then waved him over.

Brendon broke away from Spencer, who was still eyeing Gabe darkly, and skipped over, stopping at the table beside Frank. “Hi!” he said, looking at them all with a big smile. “What’s up?”

Gerard looked around as they all shuffled awkwardly, unsure of what to say. He finally drew up the courage and smiled. “So, we were just talking about it and… don’t pregnant people need doctors?” he asked gently. “We could find somebody to check you out or something, I’m sure. I mean, maybe not a baby doctor cause we were talking about how we haven’t any seen a child in _years_ since we live on space ships and a pirate station, but… well don’t pregnant people do that?” he asked.

Brendon shrugged. “Well, back home I would probably see one, but usually only when there was a problem. I should be fine,” he said dismissively.

Frank nodded. “Yeah but we were also thinking, maybe we should find someone who can take you and Spencer somewhere warm. I mean… your species are all from warm, tropical places. Not out here in the dark.”

Brendon smiled sadly. “Well it’s a good offer, but from what we learned about the Universe, there isn’t anywhere else in the entire inhabitable Universe like Terros. The only place even close is a place on Earth and that isn’t really an option.”

Ray nodded. “Yeah, but there are warmer systems. I mean, there’s plenty of places with close enough suns that it will be warm at least.”

Brendon shrugged. “That might help,” he said gratefully. “Although at this point, I’ve got no idea what all the baby will really need. There’s no documentation of a half-human-half-Lanoan baby. We should be able to care for it however we have too, though. My biggest worry is that the baby will have a more human immune system.”

Frank snorted. “You wouldn’t believe how easily I get sick,” he said and Brendon chuckled.

“We don’t really get ill,” Brendon said. “I mean, we do, but not often. Usually it’s never anything bad either. Lanoan’s aren’t as susceptible to germs. Viruses and bacteria rarely infect us.” He looked down. “My father, he said once that the Lanoan people are the future.” He looked up. “He says the human’s aren’t evolving fast enough. Eventually they will, but so many of them don’t have the immune system for the conditions of space. They wanted to set up camps on Terros after the Wars, but father refused to let humans come into our planet.”

Gerard smiled sadly. “That’s what Bob was telling us. We just thought maybe if human babies have so much trouble in in the Dark, maybe we should see about getting you somewhere warm.”

Pete interrupted. “How do you have babies if you don’t see doctors on your planet? Like… isn’t that really unsafe?”

Brendon smiled. “We’re more natural than humans.”

Frank frowned. “Wait… what does ‘more natural’ mean?” he asked suspiciously.

Brendon laughed in amusement. “We don’t really have very many hospitals. Since we don’t get sick often, usually only old people or little kids ever get sick. We have facilities for old people where there are doctors and then there is usually one hospital in every city in case of accidents, but we have a lot of natural ways to heal things. I mean, we don’t use a lot of the modern human methods. I broke my arm when I was little and I wore a cast just like humans did on earth. I didn’t have laser cell-regeneration like Spencer says he did when he broke his leg on the Moon.”

Gerard frowned. “ _Cast_? Like… those things that you see photos of from Earth that looks like a pillow on your arm?”

Brendon nodded. “Yes,” he said simply. “And in my case, we don’t do neuron-blocking pre-programmed birthing. We naturally go into labor and give birth at home unless there is reason for concern. _Then_ you go to a hospital and have doctors give you medications and- if necessary- perform the neuron-blocking in order to start surgery or something.”

Everybody stared at him in shock. “Wait… no _neuron-blocking_?! I thought natural birth hurt,” Frank said and Brendon shrugged.

“It does. Terribly,” he said. “I’ve seen it,” he said and everybody just stared. He rolled his eyes. “My governess when I was small was pregnant and she was keeping me when she went into labor. I was only eight, it was even before Spencer, but I was curious and I asked the ladies who came to help her back to her home if I could come and they knew I might have a baby eventually, so they asked my mother and father and I was allowed to be there.” He shrugged. “It looked pretty bad and I didn’t see much since I was off to the side, not down where I could see _birth_ , but at least I saw what you can expect,” he said, shrugging.

Pete just gaped. “That’s _barbaric_! Why would they do that? I mean, casts and natural birth and what else do they do on Terros that’s practically cruel?!” he asked. “Didn’t it hurt to let your arm heal naturally? Cell regeneration fixes it in just a few hour, casts took _weeks_. Hell, months even if it was all the way!”

Frank nodded, gaping. “And every human woman has their child’s birth scheduled early in pregnancy so that they _avoid_ childbirth. Even then, apparently it still hurts a little for a little while after the neuron-blockers wear off.”

Brendon laughed. “Well yes, but that’s part of what weakened humans, don’t you think?” he asked. “You break a bone, you fix it right back. You get sick, you cure it with a single pill. Your body is made to heal itself, you just need to keep it from healing wrong. When you get ill, you may need a little help, but your body needs to do the work itself and fight off infections or else your immunity becomes obsolete and you get sick more often, even if it’s easier to cure.”

Ray eyed him. “And what about _you_?” he asked slowly.

Spencer chose that moment to walk up, eyeing Ray suspiciously. “What about Brendon?” he asked, leaning on the table beside Brendon, who bumped their shoulders together. “What’re you guys talking about?”

Brendon smiled brightly at his lover. “Apparently how ‘barbaric’ Lanoan culture is for using old-fashioned medical practices, not modern ‘no mess, no fuss’ methods.”

Spencer nodded. “Brendon wore a _cast_ when he broke his arm,” he said pointedly. “I nearly fainted, it was so strange. But I got used to it. Bandages instead of skin-regeneration cream on cuts and scrapes wasn’t too hard to live with, just a little annoying,” Spencer clarified.

Brendon chuckled. “And Ray, as for _me_ ,” he began playfully. “It’s the same. I’ll do what my body is made for when the time comes for the baby to be born,” he said simply.

Pete cringed. “But… the male body isn’t _made_ for that.”

Spencer chuckled. “For Lanoans it is,” he pointed out. He kissed Brendon’s head. “Yeah I was sort of freaked out when he told me that he would be giving birth naturally but I did hear that was what happened on Terros in my time there. I think it sounds stupid to go through unnecessary pain, but whatever-“

“It isn’t worth risking the health of myself or my baby, Spencer,” Brendon argued, giving him a look that suggested that it wasn’t a new conversation. “I don’t even know what neuron-blocking would do to a Lanoan. And forced birth could hurt my baby. I don’t trust unnatural things like that. I fully believe my baby will not be _ready_ to be born until I go into labor and it’s clear my body isn’t meant to house it anymore,” he stressed. He looked at them all. “Pain is worth knowing my baby is ready to be born and that the methods won’t hurt it.” He huffed. “Besides, human women gave birth all alone in ancient times. Their bodies were meant for that. My body is meant for the same thing, Lanoans happen to just have the ability for both genders to do so.”

Gerard shot him a look. “Yeah, and in ancient times women _died_ giving birth. There’s a reason for modern methods. Okay, maybe it is better for you since you can’t know what all the human medical stuff will do to your body, but there’s a _reason_ for them.”

Brendon shrugged. “I guess so, but I’m not a human. I don’t think I could trust that my baby would be okay, you know?” 

Spencer smiled, leaning against Brendon. “I know. I don’t think I would trust it either, if I’m honest,” he said, sliding their hands together. “I’d die if something happened to our baby,” he said softly.

Brendon beamed. “Exactly!” He nodded at them. “They were thinking about trying to get us to a warm planet, since there’s no telling if a Lanoan baby will handle the cold well.”

Spencer perked up. “That’s really good thinking,” he said, looking at the others. “Do you think you could find somewhere warm that somebody would let us stay? I mean, I really don’t like intruding on everybody but we don’t have any-“

Frank put a hand on his shoulder. “Spencer, we’ll help you out, man. If we can find a friend of a friend, somebody we can trust, they’ll let you stay with them. I mean, we know good people.”

Spencer smiled brightly- a smile that showed his true age- and sighed in relief. “Thank you.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gerard smirked when he found Patrick’s friend Travis, Pete, and Ray all smiling dopey smiles at Brendon and Spencer, who were on the couch watching an old earth movie on Gabe’s projection wall. Even funnier than three grown men, two of which were hardened space pirates and one a waiter in a pirate bar, making sappy faces at the young lovers was Bob staring with an expression somewhere between horror and constipation and Gabe staring like it was the most confusing sight ever.

“This is the best thing ever, Spencer Smith!” Brendon gushed, smiling from his spot with his head on Spencer’s shoulder as he watched the animated furniture dancing around on the screen. “Seriously, Earth seems like it was a cool place back before The Wars. Their children’s movies had dancing furniture!”

Spencer smiled. “I think I saw this movie when I was little on the moon. There was a lot of Earth stuff on the moon, as far as I can remember.”

Brendon giggled as the foot stool ran into the wall. “I want to learn these songs to sing them to our baby,” he said, wiggling around to the beat before tugging Spencer’s arm around him tighter. “C’mon, dance with me Spence!” Spencer rolled his eyes but obligingly swayed back and forth with Brendon. 

“You’re lucky I love you so much,” Spencer said, kissing Brendon’s temple as they swayed and Brendon wiggled around in his seat.

Gerard just snickered at the _giddy_ looks on Ray’s face. “Ray Toro, are you secretly a romantic?” he asked, startling the group staring so much that Pete yelped and fell off of his chair.

Ray blushed. “Fuck off, it’s adorable!” he grumbled, stalking away bashfully.

“What is?” Frank asked as he walked over, eating a protein pack. 

“Brendon and Spencer,” Gerard said, then looked at Frank curiously. “How fucking much are you gonna eat?” he asked and Frank flipped him off.

“I get plenty of exercise keeping you fuckers alive,” he said, taking another bite obnoxiously, chewing with his mouth open straight at Gerard, who just shot him a flat look.

“Very mature,” he said, snorting.

Frank leaned to see past Gerard, grinning at the kids. “They’re cute,” he said, pushing his hair out of his face. “I wonder-“

“GERARD!” Everybody turned sharply to see Patrick running in. “Gerard, I heard something!” he said, rushing over to shove Gabe away from the table screen.

Gerard rushed over. “What?! What did you hear?”

“About Mikey?” Pete asked, rushing over. 

Patrick nodded swiping his hand across to make the keypad pop up before typing something in. “I was doing lunch when some really roughed up guy came in. Your type,” he said to Gerard. “I overheard them talking about springing one of their guys from this really secret prison on an abandoned planet way out there. We’re talking _way_ out there,” he said pointedly.

“How far?” Frank asked and Patrick looked up. “What, near the Rim?”

Patrick pulled up a map. “Well…” He trailed off and spread his hands zooming in. “You’ve been the closest to the Rim, right?” he asked Frank, who clenched his jaw. “Got any way to explain this?” he asked, gesturing to the screen.

Gabe, Pete, Patrick, and all of Frank’s crew huddled close, trying to work out what they were looking at. “What the fuck?” Gabe asked, tilting his head.

Bob shook his head. “There _is nothing_ that far out. Nifl is empty. There isn’t _space_ out there. It’s just blackness. It’s the absence of matter-“

“Apparently not,” Patrick said pointedly. “Just past the Rim, those guys were talking about landing somewhere called Tartarus. Apparently it’s a really small ice planet. From what I gather, it’s basically a place so small and secretive, only the people who survived the last mines there know it exists.” He looked up. “That is, other than the Confederation.” He tapped on the screen and brought up a tiny planet. “It’s so secret, when I try to zoom in?” He tried to zoom and all that came up was a white box with the words ‘classified’ on it. It covered the entire planet. 

Gerard bit his lip. “Why do you think he might be there?” he asked and Patrick looked up with a dark look in his eyes.

“The guys, they went in to rescue their friend. They got lucky and saw the guys who took him and followed them. They lost them at the Rim, but they waited around and followed in a cargo ship. They were in their ships shuttle or something, because the guy told me they were able to land on top of the cargo ship and ride it in without being detected. They said they watched from the shuttle as about fifty people were unloaded off the ship. They said some of them were sent one way, towards the mines, the bigger, healthier looking ones. The rest of them got sent into this facility.” He shook his head sadly. “They snuck into the facility and nearly got their guy out but on the way back out, they ran for it and he fell behind and got shot. Anyways,” he said, waving a hand. “They said there were plastic rooms, everything was white, the prisoners were tied down to cots in them behind the glass. But,” he said somberly. “They watched someone getting dragged down the hall, past a metal door where there were screams. They brought somebody back out and the guy said the trail of blood down the white hall sort of told what happened behind the door.”

Frank clenched his jaw. “They’re holding them to get information.” His words were a statement, not a question. Patrick nodded.

“That’s what they figure. I mean, we can’t _know_ he’s there, I’m just saying, we didn’t find him on any database, you guys tracked bounty hunters all over the Confederation, and any hunter would’ve turned him in for the money by now,” Patrick said simply. “If Mikey is alive, that could be where he is.”

Gabe looked at Gerard. “You guys aren’t exactly the least wanted out there,” he said softly. “They could’ve got him and kept it quiet to try and get information without people knowing they have him.”

Pete slammed his fist into the table. “We’ve got to go there,” he said angrily. “Fuck, those bastards-“

“Hold on, dude,” Gabe said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Look,” he started softly. “It’s suicide, Wentz.”

Pete glared daggers. “I don’t give a damn, they have Mikey-“

“Pete,” Gerard started, shaking his head. “He’s right.”

Pete just stared in disbelief. “ _You_ agree? Fuck you, that is your brother and you’re not going crazy to get there-“

“I know he’s my fucking brother,” Gerard snapped, shutting him up. “Wentz, we flew into this blasters blazing and look what it got us! Lost! Fuck, it’s been forty-three cycles he’s missing and if we hadn’t wasted over thirty of them flying blind we could’ve got him by now! I’ll be damned if I’m going to fuck up again,” he said. He pointed at Gabe, eyes aflame. “Get your hacker on this. I want records. I want to see who and when.” He pointed at Patrick. “You, get McCoy and track down those guys, I want to talk to them.” Gerard turned to Bob. “Find out what you can about Tartarus and see if you can even get the Nyx there. If not, go talk to Pete’s crew and see if they can get the Cobra that far.”

“On it,” Bob said, walking out. His leaving started a chain reaction and Patrick and Travis both left to go do what they could to find the pirates while Gabe went to call Victoria to meet him downstairs in the room where she kept all the big-time equipment she would need. 

Gerard nodded for Ray to go talk to Spencer and Brendon, who were watching them with uneasy expressions. “Frank,” he said, turning to him, only to find him staring at the screen. “Frank,” he said softly and Frank’s fist clenched around the side of the table. Gerard pried his hand loose and let Frank squeeze his hand. “Can you deal?” he asked gently and Frank choked on a harsh, ugly laugh.

“It’s less than a parsec from Carbostation,” Frank said in a vicious whisper. “Less than a motherfucking _parsec_ from-“ He shook his head, tugging on a handful of his hair. “Fuck, Gerard, I just-“

Gerard nodded. “I know.” He didn’t even flinch when Frank turned suddenly and threw his arms around Gerard, crushing his face into Gerard’s neck, clinging to him like he would shatter if he didn’t hang on to Gerard. Gerard just closed his eyes and held Frank just as tightly, hands fisted in the back of Frank’s jacket tightly.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Brendon was sitting on the floor beside the refrigerator eating a bowl of pudding when Frank stumbled into the kitchen. Frank ruffled his hair and yawned. “What are you doing?” he asked, opening the refrigerator to get something to drink.

Brendon shrugged. “Like I said before, solid surfaces make my back feel better. And I was hungry,” he said, patting his tummy. “The little one apparently takes a lot out of me,” he said, chuckling. “Spencer’s always said I never stop eating so I didn’t have to worry about an appetite increase. I guess my appetite increasing even more actually was possible,” he said with a smile. “I eat so much lately.”

Frank hummed, sipping his drink. “Mikey is the same way. He eats anything that we don’t eat first,” he said sadly. “Skinniest guy I’d ever seen before you,” he said nodding at Brendon’s legs. “I think your thighs are even scrawnier than Wentz’s and he’s shorter than you.”

Brendon shrugged. “I’m a tiny guy. I may not be super short, but I’m small.” He patted his belly again. “Getting fat now though.” Brendon looked up at Frank and bit his lip worriedly. “Hey… about earlier,” he started and Frank cringed. “What-“ Brendon took a breath. “You can tell me no, but what was up with you and Gerard? Spencer and I were talking to Ray and we all saw you sort of freak out. Ray told us what was going on, but you looked… freaked.”

Frank chuckled sadly. “Oh yeah.” He moved and slid down to slide to the floor beside Brendon. “Mikey and Gerard and Ray saved my life,” he started and Brendon nodded patiently. Frank sighed. “There’s a small mining colony on a moon not far from where we were looking at earlier. It’s near the Rim. It has a name, but it’s called Carbostation, even though it isn’t a station.” He waved a hand. “Carbon mining you know? Well, I’m not sure what you know about mining, but let’s just say normal people don’t voluntarily become miners,” he said weakly. “I was born into a family of miners. I wasn’t a slave technically, even my family weren’t really slaves since my parents had been born there too. It was basically just… society to us. We all knew there was no choice. You lived in camps, you went to school to learn basic stuff, then when you were big and strong enough, you went to work in the mines. The foremen came and rounded everybody up when the artificial lights came on, since we were too far from a star. It was fully artificial living, the camps were underground and artificial. Fuck, I’d never seen natural light until they got me,” he said, laughing humorlessly. “Anyways, we got fed what they gave us, we learned what they let us, we were basically a contained society and nobody did anything because if you disobeyed, you died. Simple as that.” 

Brendon frowned. “Did you disobey?”

Frank groaned. “Yeah, but it wasn’t… I didn’t do it myself.” He put his face in his hands then pushed his hair back as he sat up again, head banging into the cabinet behind him. “There was an uprising. My mom was part of it, as was my dad and my grandpa. I didn’t even know it was happening. I had just started working in the mines, I was older than most kids when they started because how little I am. I was eighteen before they figured I was as strong as I’d ever be and sent me in anyhow.” He shook his head. “Apparently when the revolution started, they found out about my family’s involvement. The war was… terrible,” he said, bitterly. “It only lasted two weeks but I saw- I saw children slaughtered. I saw old people who couldn’t even walk they were so old dragged outside and murdered. A lot of us hid in the mines. I was little so I had worked in the tighter spaces, so when they came for a big group of us, my grandfather, he told me to take my cousins and hide them as far in as I could.” Frank swallowed thickly. “They were four of them. Four little kids. Three little girls who were all under twelve and a little boy who could barely run he was so young.”

Brendon’s breath caught. “Oh Frank,” he whispered and Frank’s lip wobbled.

“I took them and we ran and when the tunnels were too small to run, we crawled and I hid them as far into the mines as I could. I told the oldest girl, she was eleven, I told her to keep them quiet and said I’d be right back.” Frank shook his head, a tear slipping down his nose. “I went back out, I went out to see what I could do, to find a way to do just… _anything_ ,” he choked out. “I got out where the fighting was and- and the people who ran the mines, our ‘keepers’ or whatever… they were just killing everybody. They had fucking war guns and the miners just had smuggled in, shitty blasters so it was just a slaughter.” Frank took a breath. “There was a few ships landing. I could see at least three. I was running around, trying not to get caught or shot, trying to find my parents or anybody and by the time I found them-“ He shook his head. “They were all dead. Everybody. My parents, my grandpa, my aunts and uncles. Everybody was dead.”

“The ships,” Brendon said softly. “One of them was the Nyx?”

Frank nodded. “I ran back for the mines. I was going to hide with the kids as long as we could. I mean… I figured by then we were all going to die, I knew it.” He shook his head, eyes crushed shut. “I could see some strangers. People running towards the mines from the hangars. We were on the surface, all the fighting was up there, and I thought they were going after the people in the mine so I ran faster, trying to get in to warn somebody and hide with the kids. Only when I ran in, I heard somebody yelling ‘don’t go in!’ and I stopped, I couldn’t help it, and then these three guys ran in and started shouting for people to get out of the mines.” He sniffled weakly. “It was Mikey that saw me running towards the tunnels and he ran and caught me. He yelled to run out and I told him I had to find somebody but he just grabbed me and practically dragged me out. I got free a few times and tried to go, but then Ray saw and came over to try and make Mikey let me go and run.” Frank sniffled with a smile. “Mikey wouldn’t give up on me. Everybody else had either ran out or ran further in the tunnels and I guess he wasn’t going to be the one to lose a person. Ray just picked me up and fucking tossed me over his shoulder just so Mikey would hurry and go.”

Brendon frowned. “Why were they trying to make you all leave?”

Frank crushed his eyes shut. “They- Gerard had been following a slave shuttle when they turned back and left since the mine owners didn’t want new cargo damaged in the uprising. Gerard was the Captain then, Bob was our last recruit,” he explained. “They thought they couldn’t do anything to help but they thought if they landed, they could at least jam communications and give us miners a chance, you know?” He shook his head. “But then they intercepted a communique about what they were going to do. They knew we were all hiding in the mines,” he said, shuddering. “To make a longer story a little shorter, they were trying to get us all out of the mines because they were going to bomb them,” he said and Brendon gasped. Frank nodded weakly. “Everybody died. Anybody in the entrance had either ran out like Mikey and Ray said or ran too deep to help anymore. We had barely made it far enough away from the blast range when they started dropping plasma bombs on the ground on mountains. They got the entrance with laser cannons. The mines collapsed and everybody got crushed,” he said weakly. He whimpered. “God I hope they got crushed,” he said and Brendon shot him a look. Frank let out a weak sob. “If they didn’t they either suffocated or starved, Brendon. I hope so bad those poor kids got hit directly. There was no saving anybody trapped. Nothing could be done,” he said through his tears.

Brendon bit his lip, tears in his own eyes. “Your whole family?”

Frank nodded. “Everybody. All my friends, all my family. Of nearly four-thousand miners, only about fifty people escaped. I don’t know if they let anybody life, but when I woke up a few cycles later after getting hit with the blast wave, Gerard told me the other ships that had landed, they managed to get about fifty people.” Frank sniffled. “Gerard had been trying his best to disable the targeting systems while Ray and Mikey tried to save people from the mines, but it was too little too late.” He shrugged. “I’ve been with them since. Mikey and Ray and Gerard are my family. They’re… everything to me,” he said. He sighed. “Mikey is the reason I’m alive. Gerard may be his brother, but Mikey is the reason I’m alive so you can imagine how much I want to help him. Bob is my family too, I love him just the same, but those three guys are why I’m here, you know?”

Brendon nodded. “Hey, you guys saved us, I can definitely understand being grateful,” he said and Frank chuckled.

“Nah, we’re not heroes, we just did the right thing with you guys. Them risking everything to help some miners? That was heroic,” he said and Brendon shrugged.

“Well, sure, you tried to kill Spencer, so that isn’t so heroic,” he teased and Frank rolled his eyes, smiling bashfully. “But no really, there’s no telling what would’ve happened eventually. All I know for sure is that because of you guys, there’s three people still alive right now,” he said, smiling down at his middle.

Frank grinned. “Dude, you are so proud of that damn baby,” he teased making Brendon blush. “Hey, I don’t blame you,” he said. He sighed, drinking some of his drink. “In another life, I’d have probably been a good dad. But that’s not how things happened, I guess.”

Brendon smiled. “Hey, you don’t get to pick how life goes. I mean, I could’ve still been a prince now. Instead, I’m pregnant and technically still on the run.”

Frank grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry, kid. We’ll find somewhere for you two to go. We’ll find somebody to help you guys out.”

Brendon shrugged. “I believe you, I just also know how easy it would be to get caught and lose Spencer if we get sent back to Terros.”

Frank shook his head. “We won’t let it happen. Promise,” he said. He stood up, draining his cup. “Hey, Mikey and Ray dragged my ass out of a mine to save me when they had no idea who I was or anything, you think they’d just let somebody grab you guys and get away with it?”

Brendon smiled. “Suppose not,” he said, waving to Frank as he left. “Goodnight.”

Frank nodded. “Goodnight, Brendon.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
When everybody got up, Brendon was, once again the first one up and the first one eating. Spencer just snorted. “Do you ever stop now, Bren?” he asked, going over to kiss his head before going to get something for himself.

Brendon grinned. “I’m just hungry!” 

“Hey guys!” They all looked up and waved when Gabe, Pete, and some other people Brendon didn’t know came running in. Gabe slapped his hand onto the table screen. “Dude, we think we found news Mikey is in that prison Patrick found,” he said, pulling up a video. “Come on,” he said, pressing play on the slider.

The video seemed to be of the back of somebody who was talking to Patrick. Clearly the video was taken stealthily. “Like I said, we didn’t see a blonde kid, but there was a really skinny guy. I don’t remember his hair, it was short is all I know. But yeah, there was a skinny guy if that’s what you’re asking. Look, I’m done talking about that place. It was a terrible place, my friend died anyways, and I don’t give two shits about your friend, I’m sorry.”

“You think it’s him?” Gerard asked Pete, who nodded.

“Victoria found out there was a prisoner transport three cycles after Mikey disappeared on Skadus-9. It would take about two to cover that distance, so it may be him.” He pulled up a log and showed Gerard where the listing for a transport was just ‘one male prisoner’. “It’s a longshot, but it’s more than we’ve had so far.”

Gerard nodded. “Fuck, we may as well.”

Gabe gave him a warning look. “Gerard, look, this place is tight. Victoria can’t even hack in to their systems. With enough time, she could hack into the security cameras in Chacellor Xerodian’s fucking bedroom if she wanted but she couldn’t get into this place.”

Gerard shook his head. “We’ve gone blind before. We’ve dropped into fucking warzones, Saporta. We have done more for less. It may take some work, but no reason the prisoner transfer we usually pull on bounty hunters shouldn’t get us in the door, at least.” He looked at Pete’s companions. “We could use some help though. I wouldn’t ask for help if I didn’t think you guys would want in.”

The taller one snorted. “You know what Pete’s like without Mikey just as much as we do. Anything to not have to deal with this for any longer than necessary,” he said, grunting when the smaller one elbowed him.

“Not to interrupt, I promise I’m not trying to cause trouble, but before you guys run off, what are you going to do with the kids?” Gabe asked. “I’ll look after them if I have to, but with nobody here, they’re sitting ducks if his father is still looking for them.”

Brendon walked over. “I can find out fast enough,” he said. He swiped away the page on the table screen. “We didn’t use these much but I know how to get into the ‘wanted’ list or whatever easy enough. I kept up with whether or not Spencer got caught while he was running those few cycles.” He typed some stuff in and dragged a few boxes before pulling up a screen. He paled. “Fuck.”

Gerard saw the words ‘kill on sight’ and just stared. “Your father put a kill order on your head?!” he said in shock.

“What?!” Spencer cried, shoving Gabe out of the way, staring blankly. “Fuck.”

Brendon sighed, shaking his head. “I knew Spencer would have a kill order. I thought I was still his fucking child though,” he said angrily and it struck them that they had never seen Brendon angry. “Great paternal affection, dad,” he spat, swiping the screen clear with an angry sweep of his hand.

“Who the hell put a kill order on this cute little thing,” the tall guy said, leaning down closer to Brendon. “Hi, I’m Matt Mixon. You’re hot,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Brendon just shot him a look. Spencer glowered over Brendon’s shoulder and Gabe rolled his eyes.

“Seriously not the time to flirt,” he said and the shorter guy that was with him punched him in the side, making him grunt.

“And you’re not allowed to flirt, asshole,” he said, and Pete smirked.

“Your man’s hitting on a teenager. Pretty sure that’s a bad sign for your relationship, Andy,” he told his friend.

“Damn, Hurley, I think you shoved my organs to the side, thanks,” Matt said and Brendon just rolled his eyes.

“Eh, better he hit you than Spencer,” he told Matt, who cringed away some at the fire in Spencer’s glare at him.

“Ow, my soul.”

Spencer just huffed. “Okay, bullshit aside,” he started, curling his arm around Brendon’s waist. “What are going to do to hide Brendon if you guys are all going off on this mission?” he asked seriously. “I’m not trying to hold you guys up,” he said quickly and Gerard shook his head.

“No, you’re right. If you have kill orders on you, we need to get you somewhere safe. I highly doubt your father is going to have people looking for you in civilian places, but Clandestine is just the type of lawless place they’d be after you.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Andy said, speaking up. “Gens won’t waste their time going after somebody outside Confederation control and if your father is that guy you just showed us, the king of Terros?” He shook his head. “You’re safe from Gens. Anywhere in the Confederation where nobody knows you’re tied to us, just a plain civilian zone, you’ll be okay. My mom and stepdad have room back home. Families live together in one house a lot of the time where they life and since it’s just them with me being gone and not having a family, their house has tons of room. They’d help out in a heartbeat if it means having somebody else around,” he said.

Gerard’s head popped up. “You live on Ataca-3 right?” Andy nodded and Gerard smiled. “Fuck, you really think your parents will let them stay?” He looked at Brendon. “It isn’t tropical, but it’s warm there at least. It’s a desert planet, the dryness might take getting used to for you guys, but it’s really warm. Better than nothing.”

Andy raised an eyebrow. “Got a problem with the cold?” he asked, and Brendon smiled brightly.

“Not really, we just worried that since I’m not human and I’m used to tropical climate, and Spencer’s lived with me for so long, that the baby may not handle the cold well,” he said, putting a hand on his middle.

Pete snickered at the look on Andy and Matt’s faces. “I told you guys there was a pregnant boy,” he said and Brendon nodded.

“Yep! It’s why my father wants us dead,” he said, nodding at Spencer. “He’s the baby’s father,” he explained.

Andy just hummed. “Damn, Wentz, I really thought you were lying,” he said and Matt laughed at the offended look on Pete’s face. “Look, it’ll take us a few cycles to get ready to leave to go on this rescue mission. Matt and I can take you guys to Ataca-3 and be back in three or four cycles.” He glanced at Wentz. “Let us take the Cobra for a few cycles and get them there, then we’ll take both ships when we head to Tartarus?” he suggested and Pete grumbled.

“If you break my ship, I’ll break your faces,” he threatened, but didn’t argue.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Gerard smiled at Pete when he came onto the ship. “Hey, you guys ready? We’re just waiting on you guys,” he said, gesturing to the bustling sounds of pre-flight checks off somewhere in the ship.

Pete nodded, biting his lip. “Look, I just wanted to let you know that… no matter what, we’re following your orders,” he said. He shook his head. “You know better than we do how to spring people from prison. Fuck, we run more liquor than anything else, you know?”

Gerard smiled weakly. “And this is Mikey,” he finished and Pete nodded.

“Yeah, I-“ He shook his head, rubbing his hands into his eyes. “You are the one who knows how to rescue people and I want to know we’re going to get him. I just need to know you are calling the shots because I know you want him back safe even more than I do,” Pete admitted.

Gerard gave him a softened look and pulled him into a hug. “Dude, I know you love him, Pete. You would call the right shots too if you were in charge, you know how to do things when somebody you love is on the line.”

Pete pressed his face into Gerard’s shoulder. “I just don’t trust myself. Fuck, I can barely keep him from leaving me, I don’t trust myself to keep him _alive_ ,” he said weakly.

Gerard chuckled. “You would know what to do, Pete. You’d figure it out fast.” He patted his back. “Come on, we’ve gotta go, okay?”

Pete pulled away nodding. “Thanks, Gerard. You guys fly safe,” he said and Gerard nodded as he walked towards the ramp back to the dock.

“You guys too.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Alright guys,” Bob said to the other crew on the comm. “We’ll get clearance with the identification codes Victoria hacked for us, then we get inside with our ‘prisoner’ he’s going to make a run for it. While the alarm is up, you guys land fast, we’ll have as much of a distraction as possible waiting on you guys. You land and get in however you can. Chances are it’ll be locked down with a prisoner on the run, but get in and while we’ve got them running, you guys go straight for searching. From what we know from the guys who broke in last time, there aren’t many prisoners at all, so chances are they’re all kept in one place. When you get him, get out.”

Pete frowned. “What about you guys, we can’t just run for it without knowing if you’re safe or-“

“No, you get Mikey and leave,” Gerard said over Bob’s shoulder. “We’ll get out, but I’m not risking the whole mission failing. No matter what, you get Mikey back to the Cobra and you get your ass to Clandestine as fast as you can. They can’t touch you there,” he said and Pete nodded silently, jaw clenched. “Good. We’re going soon,” he said, turning to Frank. 

Frank shook his head. “I’m not doing it, Gerard,” he said, arms crossed.

“Iero, punch me in the motherfucking face,” Gerard demanded and Frank rolled his eyes.

“Even if I was willing to hit you, I would pull the punch. I couldn’t do it. Trust me, my body would revolt-“ Gerard punched him in the face, shutting him up. “DAMN IT!” Frank cursed, spitting blood from his busted lip as he cursed. “Fucker,” he hissed, glaring at Gerard, who just drew back.

“I’ll hit you again, Frankie, don’t think I won’t,” Gerard threatened and Frank flushed with anger before punching Gerard, who cried out and fell back against Ray at the impact.

Frank paled. “Oh shit!” he cried and Gerard straightened up, shaking his head.

“No, hey that worked,” he said, groaning. “Fuck, my face!” he groaned, touching his cheek, only to huff when he found blood. “Damn, right on the bone.”

Frank rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. “Sorry.”

Gerard smirked. “Hey, you didn’t pull your punch at least,” he said and Frank rolled his eyes.

“Oh fuck off.” He turned back to look out. “Alright, we’re landing soon.”

Bob nodded. “You guys get back into the hall, we don’t want your faces on the screen.”

Ray smiled nervously. “Alright, let’s go guys,” he said and Gerard and Frank both nodded, following him out into the hall to wait for Bob to get them in to dock.

“I hope this works,” Frank said, and Gerard reached out to squeeze his hand.

“Me too.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Pete jumped when alarms started sounding over the open comm to Bob’s cockpit. “Huh, looks like that worked,” Bob said and Pete turned to Matt.

“Alright, here’s our cue,” he said and Matt nodded.

“How’s the security down there, Bryar?” Matt asked as he started the ship’s turn towards the docking station.

Bob tapped a few screens before humming. “Not bad. The guards ran when the alarms went off, headed into the compound. There’s a crew booth up the docks but I doubt they’ll do anything. I scanned on the way in, no shields or defense cannons so you’re safe to land. I have no idea what’s going on inside though. The doors slammed shut when the alarms went off, full lockdown, but from here it looks like a simple card reader, you can shoot it or smash it and it’ll open up.”

Andy nodded, holstering his guns. “Good,” he said, tossing Pete the little blaster Pete liked to hide under his jacket in case he dropped his gun. “Fixed the core but it still overheats. If shit gets bad, you’ll have some fried fingers, but you’ll live.”

Pete nodded. “Fuck if that’s the worst I have, we’ll be lucky,” he said. He turned to flip on the ships comm. “Trohman!” he called and waited until he heard the clunking of Joe running up to the bridge. 

“Yeah?”

Pete nodded at the cockpit. “Matt’s turning her over to you while we head in. You be ready to take off as soon as we get back just in case,” he said and Joe cringed.

“I hate just in case. I really hope it doesn’t come down to that because I can fly, but we’re fucked if something happens to Matt and you fuckers plan on landing anywhere.”

Matt chuckled. “Don’t worry your fuzzy little ass, Joe. If I die, chances are everybody else will to. I’m too pretty to die alone,” he said and Andy rolled his eyes.

“Keep flirting with women everywhere we land and you won’t be very pretty when I break your face off,” he threatened and Matt smirked.

“Kinky, baby!”

Pete chuckled. “Shut up and land us. We’ve got friends running around just to get us in, risking their lives. We’ve got to do this and get out.” 

“Alright, keep your pants on, I’m going in,” Matt said. Once they had landed and docked, Matt jumped up. “Take it Trohman, we gotta run.”

Andy helped Matt get his holster on and buckled while Matt pulled on his jacket. “Pete, go ahead and work on the door,” Andy said and Pete nodded, slapping his back affectionately as he passed, stopping to ruffle Joe’s hair before he ran off through the ship down to the door.

“Alright, keep safe, Joe,” Andy called, reaching out to ruffle his hair as well before starting off after Matt, both of them running after Pete.

Matt caught Andy at the door and leaned down to kiss him quickly. “Stay safe, baby,” he said and Andy squeezed his hand.

“You too,” he said, both of them nodding before running out the door, guns at the ready. Andy stopped to close up the ramp to the ship, locking the airlock so that nobody could sneak on while they were gone.

As soon as he got to the door where Pete and Matt were, Pete shoved him flat against the wall, Matt flattening himself to the other side, just in time for a blast as the door blew open. “Iero left us a present,” Pete said, kicking the smoking metal out of the way so they could run in. “Left a primed explosive on the floor. Fucking demolition freak,” he said and Andy laughed.

“Thank him later,” he said, saluting Pete before they raised their guns and ran for it, Pete in front, Andy behind him, Matt bring up the rear. 

They rushed down a hall, red lights flashing everywhere as alarms blared. Pete had just ran past a hall to the left when a blast went right over Andy’s head, making Matt stop so fast he fell down, leaving him scrambling back for cover. “Go, I’ve got this!” he shouted, pressing against the wall before leaning out to stop whoever was onto them.

Andy and Pete continued on, picking off a few shooters as they passed halls. For the most part, it was easy going. Clearly, everybody had left their stations to chase after the first group in. “Alright, Bryar,” Andy said into his wrist communicator. “We got to the end of the main hall, where now?”

“Good to hear you’re alive, Hurley,” Bob’s voice crackled through. “Best I’ve got from this basic schematic is that at the end of the main hall, there’s a white airlock to the left.” 

Andy turned and looked as they reached the far wall, nodding at the airlock. “Pete, that one,” he said and Pete went to hotwiring the code pad. “Alright, when we get in, what do we expect?”

“There’s a guard station right off. I doubt they left, they’re the ones guarding the prisoners. You take a left there, the only way you can go, and there’s a hallway. From what I can see, there’s seven cells. The guys at the bar said it was white rooms with glass, like a sterile setting. No idea how to get in to the prisoners, I doubt they break, but I guess there’s got to be a door, not just a glass wall.”

Andy looked up. “Pete, as soon as the door opens, I’m going in to pick off the guards, keep running past me, okay? Seven cells to the left. Mikey should be there.”

“On it,” Pete said, then cried triumphantly as the door opened. Andy rushed in and quickly shot the guards before they even had guns out of their holsters. Pete was thrown off by the sterile feel of the hall. It was like a laboratory or something. He found the first glass-fronted cell and slowed, unable to keep going. Inside the room was a guy who was tied to a cot, staring at the ceiling. He looked barely conscious. “What the hell do they do here?” he whispered to himself. “ANDY!” he called and Andy caught up. “Fuck, just… work on getting these people out.”

Andy nodded. “You go on, find Mikey and get him out. I’ll get the rest.” Pete went on, noting that only five of the cells had people.

However, none of them were Mikey. “FUCK!” he cried, yanking at his hair before making a quick decision. There was a woman in the last cell who was looking at him, saying something he couldn’t hear. He looked around the glass for something to open a door, only to find nothing. He growled and kicked the glass, not surprised when nothing opened. “ANDY!”

“You find him?” Andy called, and Pete looked back down the hall.

“How do you get them out?!”

Andy held up a hand. “I can’t find anything. Fuck, I don’t even see a seam!”

Pete heard a thud and turned to see the woman looking at him had kicked her shoe off and it had hit the glass. He watched as she mouthed something. “I can’t hear you!” he shouted and she slowed down, mouthing something over and over before Pete realized what she was saying.

_Guard station._

“ANDY! The guard station!” Pete cried, running down. He passed Andy and hopped over the counter, shoving one of the guards’ bodies. He looked at the screen in front of him, not recognizing anything. One thing stood out, and that was a schematic on the table for the cell block. He saw a label pointing down. He opened drawer upon drawer before finding a button inexplicably wired to a drawer. He pressed it and yelped when a panel slid open beside him. He turned to the wall and saw it was a breaker box setup labeled with cell numbers. He quickly pressed ‘disengage’ for every one of them, frowning at the bottom unlabeled lock. He disengaged that one too, just in case. 

“Pete, they’re opening!” Pete jumped up at Andy’s cry and ran back down the hall. He could hear a few people crying for help now. Andy was already breaking one guy out. “Go to the end, start there,” he directed, and Pete ran back to the last cell, where the woman was already trying to break free of her bonds.

“Thank fuck,” she spat and Pete ran over, pulling out his knife to cut her hands free before her feet. “Man, I thought I was gonna die,” she said and Pete chuckled.

“Don’t get too excited just yet, you gotta get out of here,” he said and she grabbed her shoe, pulling it back on. “You hurt?” he asked and she shook her head. “Here.” He pulled his ankle-holster off and handed it and the gun in it to her. “Take this and this-“ He handed her his knife, pulling another out of the other side of his jacket for himself. “And help cut people free.”

“You got a way out of here?” she asked, rushing into the next cell, across from where he was cutting someone free. The man Pete freed was bleeding from his shoulder, but was able to walk. The woman came out, helping a girl who couldn’t be more than sixteen from the looks of her. “Help me out, buddy,” she said, and the injured man grabbed the girl with the fucked up leg, helping her walk.

“There’s a tall guy holding off unwanted company down the main corridor,” Pete said quickly. “His name’s Mixon, tell him Pete sent you. Tell him to help you all back to the ship.”

She nodded and she and Pete went in to cut the next guy free. He was barely coherent and the woman practically had to carry him. “Pete!” Pete rushed out to see Andy had freed the guy from the first cell. The guy was standing, but he was swaying. “He’s drugged, he had no idea where he’s at even,” he said and Pete cursed.

“Think you guys can get him?” he asked the woman and the man who was helping the teenager.

She cringed, shifting the barely conscious guy some. “We’ll do what we can. We can’t really move fast like this-“

“You don’t have to, coast is clear,” Andy said, handing the teenager his extra gun, since she had a free hand. “Just in case.” He looked at Pete. “Matt says he thinks he got them all, he’s halfway down the hall.” He turned to the freed prisoners. “Just go as fast as you can, you’ll see him, he’s really tall you can’t miss him. He’ll get you to our ship, trust me,” he said and the woman nodded.

“Alright, grab that guy’s shirt and lead him or something,” she said about the man who was staring at the wall like it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. “You guys looking for somebody?” she asked as the other three started ahead of her and the one she was helping. Pete nodded. She shifted her burden and nodded at the end door, which was hanging open. “There were two more a few cycles ago I guess, I have no idea how long we’ve been here. I’ve been here the shortest time though. No idea who they were or anything, but the guy who was next to me went in first. He didn’t come back. Another guy got hauled in earlier,” she said with a dark look. “I don’t think the soundproofing is to keep them from hearing us if you want to know the truth,” she said and Pete flinched.

“Thanks,” he said, nodding at Andy, who led the way, yanking open the big metal door. They ran into a dark corridor, running for the light at the end. 

When they got there, however, they both stopped, horrified at the blood on the floor. The smell was overwhelming, like decay and death. The saw a row of three rooms with bars over the doors to the left and ran. The first one took the fight right out of Pete. Through the bars, they could see three body bags on tables. “No,” he breathed and Andy quickly shot the lock and yanked open the door. Pete stared, too horrified to move as Andy unzipped each one, biting his lip as he tried to tell what the hell he was looking at. Every one of them had faces so beaten they were unrecognizable.

“Wrists,” Pete said weakly, striding over as horror filled him. “It can’t be, that fucker has not gotten killed on me,” he said quickly, ripping open the zippers to see the body’s wrists. It wasn’t until the last one that he finally deflated, body flooding with relief. “Not him- I- It isn’t him,” he said and Andy nodded.

“Good, um… how are you sure?”

Pete pulled his jacket up and shoved his half-glove down on his left wrist to show Andy a tattoo of an owl, a tiny little one, barely the width of the index finger beside it. “Mikey’s is a panda,” he said simply.

Andy stared. “Mikey has an extinct animal tattooed on his wrist?”

Pete nodded. “Yeah, long story, later.” He waved a hand and they both turned to go check the next room. Pete saw it empty and ran to the last, only to stop. 

His blood ran cold when he saw a crumpled body in the corner. “Mikey?” he called weakly. He pulled his hand away from the bars and shot the lock, kicking the hot bolt free, only to hear a click as a set of locks engaged somewhere else. “No,” he whined, grabbing the door to rattle it. “ANDY!”

“I’m on it, Pete,” he said and Pete turned to see Andy had found a control panel. “Shit, this is complex-“ He was cut off by the sound of an explosion out in the hall, both of them hitting the floor fast.

“WENTZ?!”

Pete ran to the door and looked out to see the white hall charred black. “Way?!” 

Gerard was sprinting down the hall. “Gotta go, get your ass out-“

“We found him!” Pete cried, wrenching free to run back into the room. He heard Gerard following him. Andy was still trying to get the door open but Pete ran to the door. He looked in and Gerard crowded behind him. 

“Fuck, MIKEY?!” he shouted and they both let out a sigh of relief as one of the body’s long, skinny legs moved. “He’s alive, oh thank fuck!”

“Andy, hurry up,” Pete cried and Andy growled.

“It isn’t opening! I don’t have a code and I can’t bypass it!” He looked up. “The fuck was that explosion?”

Gerard cringed. “Frank found some explosives. There were guards coming in the white room out there and he blew them up. The others got out, said you were here. He’s holding off the guards while I get you,” he said.

Pete perked up. “Any PET cord?” he asked, and Gerard’s eyes flew wide.

“YES!” he cried, turning to sprint back down the corridor. 

Pete turned back to the door. “Mikey? Mikey if you can hear me, cover your ears, okay? Can you do that for me?” he called, cringing when he saw Mikey barely able to move his hand a few inches towards his head. “That’s it, baby. You can do it. Just cover your ears, okay? I promise, I’m not leaving without you,” he called, knuckles white after his grip on the bars.

“Gee said you need to blow something?!” Frank asked, running towards them with a bag on his back. 

Pete sighed. “Thank fuck, Iero.” He went back to the bars. “Cover your ears, okay?” he called one more time. “Mikey’s in there, the door is locked somewhere else, please tell me you have PET cord.”

“Fuck, yeah!” Frank dropped the bag and dug out a giant spool of thin yellow cord. “Okay, to be sure, help me get it in the crack all the way around,” he said, stuffing the end of the cord along the seam of the door while Pete unwound it from the spool as they went. When Frank got to the bottom on the other side, Pete cut the cord and threw the spool back in the bag. “Give me a detonator,” he said and Pete dug out a little cap with a timer and handed it to Frank. “We’re blowing the door, MikeyWay, cover your ears!” he called, then pressed the button, shoving at Pete. “Run!”

He and Pete ran down the hall and dragged Andy around the corner. “How long-“

“Three, two, one-“ Frank’s count was cut off by a small blast from the hall. “MIKEY!” he shouted and Pete jumped up, rushing past him down the hall. 

“MikeyWay?” Pete cried, shoving the fallen door out of his way, leaping over a small amount of panels knocked from the wall as he rushed to the body curled in the corner. There was a couple of light bulbs shattered around him, but Pete couldn’t tell if they had cut him for all the blood already streaking Mikey’s arms and head. “Mikey?” He rolled him over and felt his heart clench at how badly battered and bruised his face was. 

It was him, though. One eye opened a tiny bit, the other swollen shut. “P-Pete?”

Pete nodded, biting back tears. “It’s me, MikeyWay,” he said, carefully pulling him into a sitting position. “We gotta go, okay?”

“Here,” Frank said, catching Mikey’s arm. “Up we go,” he said, and Pete got an arm around his waist. Mikey made pained noises as they got him up, only to cry out when he put weight on his feet.

“No, no no no,” he choked out and Pete looked down, only to gasp as he saw Mikey’s bare feet covered in gashes. “I- I tried to run,” he whispered, and Pete felt sick.

“Take this.” Pete gave Frank his gun.

“Pete, you’re too small to carry him-“

“The fuck I am,” Pete spat angrily, carefully moving to shrug off his jacket so he had better range of motion. “Hang on as best you can, MikeyWay,” he said, scooping Mikey up with a grunt. No matter how skinny he was, Mikey was heavy for Pete’s small frame. “Cover me, Iero. Seriously,” Pete said, stumbling over debris to get Mikey out without dropping him.

It was slow going, Pete could barely carry Mikey, but when they finally got to the main hall, Gerard was waiting with Ray, both of them firing off shots. “Toro!” Frank cried. Gerard and Ray turned and both of them gasped.

“Mikes!” Gerard cried, only missing being shot when Andy dragged him down out of the way. “Shit, Ray get Mikey, you can run with him, none of us can.”

Ray nodded. “Give him here,” he said, pulling Mikey into his arms. He hefted him, cursing when Mikey’s head lolled. “Shit, he’s passed out.”

Pete grabbed his gun back from Frank. “Alright, we’ve got you covered, Toro.”

“Bob!” Andy said into his wrist comm, “how’s the deck situation?”

“Mixon and Trohman had to take off with their refugees. One of them ran down here to help keep the guards off my ship, but she’s only able to do so much with me sitting here so we can leave any second. Hurry the fuck up!”

“Okay, we’re coming, we got him,” Andy said, dropping the comm link. He turned to face the others and nodded. “Run,” he said simply.

Everybody nodded and shared a breath before they all ran, shots flying, hoping against hope that they made it out.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” They heard a woman shouting as they approached the ship, only to see a woman holding one arm awkwardly firing over them. “RUN!” she cried, ducking. They all ran up the ramp, only to have Gerard cry out and go down just as the ramp was closing.

“GERARD!” Pete cried, rushing back as soon as the ramp shut, airlock sealing beneath them.

“Gee?!” Frank shoved back, rushing over to Pete, who had dropped to his knees beside Gerard.

Gerard panted, sitting up on his elbows. “Fuck, fuck, motherfucking fuck!” he cried, falling onto his back. “Fuuuck,” he cried, pressing a hand to his side as he writhed. “Fuck me, oh fuck-“

“Let me see, asshole!” Frank cried, shoving Gerard’s hand off, only to go pale when he saw how much blood was gushing out of Gerard’s side. “Oh shit!” He pressed Gerard’s hand back over it. “Press down, okay?” he said and Gerard shot him a fearful look.

“What?!”

Frank grabbed his other hand and pulled him up. “We don’t have time to wait for Ray to come carry you, get up before you can’t walk,” he said and Gerard cried out in pain as he struggled to his feet. Pete helped Frank half carry him down the corridor to the medical bay, where everybody besides Bob was already congregated with Mikey. “Gerard’s shot,” Frank shouted, and Andy rushed over to drag a kit down from the cubby’s in the wall.

“Fuck me, oh dude this doesn’t seem okay,” Gerard said weakly, falling back as soon as he was laid down. 

Frank pressed his hand tighter. “You’re gonna be okay, Gee,” he said, pushing his sweaty, dingy hair out of his hair as he looked into Gerard’s pale face. “Listen to me, you’re okay, Andy’s gonna patch you up, you’ll be fine.”

Gerard coughed some. “Dude, ‘you’ll be fine’ doesn’t sound like it fits the amount of blood coming out of me right now!”

“If you would relax, it would help,” Andy demanded, slamming the kit down beside Gerard. “Okay, it’s going to gush some but I need you to pull the shirt up and move your hands,” he told Frank and Gerard.

Frank nodded. “Don’t looked, Gee,’ he said and Gerard nodded, looking up at Frank. Frank nodded at Andy and pulled Gerard’s hand away from the wound.

Andy’s eyes widened some and Frank felt his stomach roll as he watched another gush of blood rush out of Gerard’s side, but he looked away, looking down at Gerard, who looked afraid. “Not so bad,” Andy said, quickly pouring coagulant powder all over the wound to stop the bleeding long enough to start laser stitching.

Gerard whined at the pain. “Hurts,” he whimpered and Frank winced, catching Gerard’s hand as he petted Gerard’s hair soothingly.

“Yeah, he can’t really wait for the anesthetic,” Frank admitted and Gerard nodded.

“Figures, I have to get shot and can’t even get pain killers without worrying about dying,” Gerard grumbled and Frank smiled. He tilted his head, trying to look up at the table behind him. “How’s Mikey?”

Ray looked up. “Still out of it, but he should be okay. Nothing unfixable I can tell,” he said and Gerard nodded.

“Good,” he said, and Frank frowned when Gerard’s voice slurred a little. “Fuck, Frankie,” Gerard mumbled, eyelids fluttering. “M’tired.”

Frank’s eyes widened as Gerard’s eyes fluttered shut. “Gee?! Gerard?” He looked at Andy, who didn’t even look up, studiously stitching as fast as he could. “Fuck, GEE?!”

“What, no!” Ray said, looking up.

Andy sighed. “I’m stitching as fast as I can, he’s bleeding so much, if I can’t stop it…” He trailed off and Frank just bit his lip, curling his hand tighter around Gerard’s hand, holding it tight.

“Hold on, Gee. Just hang on, man,” he said, still pushing his ratty hair out of his face, watching for any sign Gerard was coming back around.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Andy had got Gerard stitched up, and he was alive, but he was still unconscious. Andy had made everybody go get cleaned up and made them eat something while he watched over Mikey and Gerard.

Frank came back, showered and changed. “How’re they doing?” he asked and Andy turned and moved to show him Mikey was awake. “Mikey!” He rushed over and smiled brightly at him. “Holy shit, dude, you have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Mikey smiled tightly, face black and blue all over. “Hey Frankie,” he said softly, voice rough. “Fuck, you’re glad to see me? Imagine my end.”

Frank chuckled. “Shit, I was starting to think you were gone, dude.”

Mikey nodded. “Me too.” He looked over at Gerard. “Andy said Gee’s gonna be okay. Can’t believe that dumbass got shot.”

Frank groaned. “Fucking scared me,” he said, looking over to look at him. “Good thing he isn’t so pale anymore.” He looked at Mikey. “Man, what happened?”

Mikey sighed. “I don’t even really remember anymore. I got caught and since then it’s just been nearly daily beating and torture.” He turned his head some. “How long’s it been?”

Frank cringed. “Going on fifty cycles.”

Mikey chuckled. “Feels like years.”

Frank squeezed his hand. “Wentz will want to see you now you’re awake,” he said and Mikey’s eyes opened again.

“Pete’s here?” he asked quickly.

Frank grinned. “He’s the one who found you. Carried your unconscious ass out,” he said and Mikey managed a small smile. “Guess you were too out to realize who got you. You were barely awake.”

Mikey groaned. “I remember an explosion and waking up here. I don’t know what happened.”

“We had to blow the door to get you out. Pete wouldn’t wait for somebody else to get you, he carried you himself. Man, you had been missing over thirty cycles by the time we got back to Clandestine to tell him, since their comms had been down, and he was been out of his mind worried.” Frank squeezed his hand. “That dude loves you something fierce.”

Mikey smiled weakly. “I know,” he said simply.

“Frank?” Frank turned to the door with a smile.

“Speak of the devil!” he said and Pete raised an eyebrow, only to forget everything when he saw Mikey move.

Pete just rushed over. “Mikey!” He cried, stopping beside him. Frank backed off and Pete knelt down beside him, resting his chin on the table beside Mikey as he curled his hand around Mikey’s wrist. “Hey baby,” he said, tears in his eyes as he gently pushed Mikey’s hair out of his face.

Mikey smiled weakly. “Hey Panda,” he whispered and Pete laughed weakly. “So, I hear you saved me,” he said softly and Pete nodded.

“I wasn’t gonna leave without knowing you were safe,” he said. Pete kissed Mikey’s hand. “I love you so much, MikeyWay,” he said, sniffling. “I thought I’d never get to tell you that.”

Mikey cleared his throat and chuckled hoarsely. “I know you love me, Wentz. I’m not stupid,” he teased and Pete rolled his eyes.

“Gee, thanks for that,” Pete said and Mikey gave him a weak laugh.

“Hey, I love you too, you know? Think I’d put up with your bullshit for _years_ if I didn’t?” he asked.

Pete shrugged. “Maybe?”

Frank and Andy share a look and Frank snorted. “Wentz, you’re so stupid,” he said. He stood up and walked over to where Andy was looking at the monitor strapped to Gerard’s wrist. “Alright, I’ll take care of looking out for these two, you should eat and clean up, Hurley.”

Andy barked out a laugh. “Thank God, I think the stupidity is catching,” he joked on his way out.

~Epilogue~

Gerard smiled at Mikey trying to walk ahead of them with Pete hanging all over them. “Man, I wonder where he gets that energy,” he said and Frank snickered.

“All this time without any sex?” he tried and Gerard groaned.

“Please don’t remind me that my brother is getting laid later, I don’t like to remember that,” he said and Frank giggled evilly. As they walked down the dusty path, Gerard shook his head. “Man, I can’t believe it’s been so long.”

“I know, seems like a week ago we were sending them off with Andy,” Frank said, knocking his shoulder into Gerard’s.

It had been a long time before Mikey and Gerard had recuperated from the events on Tartarus. They all settled in and stayed on Clandestine for a while to recover fully, but they had eventually gone back to flying missions. It hadn’t been but ten cycles ago that the crew of the Oracle of Nyx got a transmission from Ataca-3 that revealed a smiling Spencer and Brendon standing with their brand new baby in their arms to show her off to them.

He would deny it to his grave, but when Brendon told them that they named her Frankie since Frank’s terrible shot was the reason they were all safe and happy, Frank had teared up something terrible. Mikey and Bob had laughed at him, but Gerard had just promised to lie for him if he wanted to deny it.

They had invited them all to come visit them, included Gabe and all of Pete’s crew. Andy had mentioned that they had only lived with his parents for a few weeks before moving into another home and Gerard had always wondered where they moved to and why, so he was excited to see their home. When they approached a shiny silver house at the end of the path with ‘real’ faux grass and flowers rather than holograms in the front yard, they were surprised Spencer and Brendon had found a way to afford a house like that. 

Pete was the one who bounced up and pressed the comm button, waving at the screen as soon as Spencer’s face popped up. “Pete!” he said brightly and they all heard a thud and a crash as Spencer looked to the left, only to have Brendon rush over and nearly knock him out of the way, waving excitedly. 

“HI GUYS! COME IN!” he cried, and they heard a bang against the door, only to have Brendon stumble out onto the step as soon as the door slid open. “Ow.” He sat up and rubbed his head. “HI!” he said, waving at them as he stood up.

Gerard chuckled. “Center of gravity off?” he asked and Brendon groaned.

“It took me so long to get used to this gravity pregnant and I only had a baby ten days ago, I’m still used to a different balance point all together,” he said, leading the way. They heard a baby crying and Brendon led them into a large sitting area. “Awww, don’t cry, baby,” Brendon said, going over to sit beside Spencer, who was rocking the baby, trying to get her to not cry.

“Awww, baby!” Pete said, making grabby hands, only to pout when Mikey steered him _far_ away from the child.

“She’s adorable, man,” Gerard said as he and Frank sat down beside Brendon. “Tiny as hell.”

Spencer chuckled. “Yeah, apparently Lanoan babies are smaller than most human babies. My mom freaked out when she was born so small-“

“Your mom?” Frank asked quickly and Spencer’s face erupted into a bright smile.

“Yeah,” he said softly, cheeks full from smiling as he looked down at the baby. “It’s a long story…”

Brendon nudged him. “They’re here to visit, they want stories,” he said, kissing the baby’s head.

Spencer chuckled. “Okay, well it all started a few days after we’d been here.”

_”Spencer, I’m sooo hungry,” Brendon whined, rubbing his belly as they walked._

_Spencer laughed. “You’re always hungry, Bren.” He kissed his temple and curled his arm around Brendon’s waist. “Come on, there has to be a produce vendor to get some fruit from.”_

_They approached several vendors looking for something to eat, passing one person who had some really funky looking pink and red polka dotted vegetables that neither Spencer or Brendon had ever seen. They had been walking for a little while when Brendon started to turn to point something out only to sling his arm right into a woman carrying a crate of apples, knocking them both over._

_“Oh crap!” Brendon cried, rushing to help pick up the woman’s spilled fruits. “I am so sorry, I really didn’t mean to do that,” he said._

_Spencer knelt down. “Let me do it, B. You shouldn’t be bent over. Your back will hurt later,” he said, laying a hand on Brendon’s back until he stood up. He picked up the fruit and helped pile them back into the woman’s crate. “Sorry about that, he’s just clumsy sometimes,” he said, picking up the crate to stand. “Here you go,” he said, holding it out._

_“Thanks, that’s okay-“ The woman stopped when she looked up and looked at Spencer. Spencer frowned as she went pale as a sheet and her eyes widened. He felt vaguely like he had seen her before. She didn’t look like anybody from Terros, but he had no idea who she could be otherwise. However, after a few seconds staring, the woman carefully opened her mouth and whispered, “S-Spencer?”_

_Spencer’s eyes widened. “How do you know my name?” he asked and Brendon curled a hand around Spencer’s arm, fearful suddenly. “Are- did the king send you-“_

_The woman gasped, dropping the crate again as her hands flew to her mouth. “Spencer?” she squeaked, tearing up. “Are you- do you know who I am?” she asked and he shook his head, mind racing as he tried to identify the strange woman._

_“My name is Spencer Smith, but I have no-“_

_“Oh my God!” she cried out, face crumpling as tears streamed down her face. “My baby,” she choked out, reaching out to put a hand on Spencer’s face, not caring that she was kicking her apples all over the market._

_Spencer suddenly paled as he looked at the woman’s face closer. “N-No,” he said and Brendon tugged on his shirt._

_“Spence, what is going on? Who is she?” he asked uneasily, looking afraid of her._

_Spencer, however, had a flash of the same woman’s face, only much younger. “M-mom?” he whispered and she let out a sob, nodding. “Are- are you my mom?” he said in a tight voice._

_The woman nodded, laughing wetly. “You disappeared on Delta-3 station, didn’t you? You were- you were ten years old,” she choked out and Spencer gasped._

_“Y-yeah, that’s when and where I was captured,” he said weakly._

_She nodded. “My name is Ginger Smith,” she said, laughing. “I’d know my baby’s face anywhere, time be damned,” she said, pulling him into a hug. “Spencer,” she sobbed and Brendon just stared in shock as Spencer’s eyes filled with tears as he curled his arms around the woman weakly._

_“Mom,” he whimpered and she nodded, pulling back to look up at his face._

_“It’s really me, Spencer,” she said and Spencer smiled wetly._

_“Oh my God, I never imagined I’d see you again,” he choked out, sniffling. He looked at Brendon. “Bren- Brendon, it’s really her. I remember now,” he said with a small laugh. “It’s my mom.”_

_Brendon smiled and slid his arms around Spencer. “I’m so happy for you, Spence,” he said, giggling when Spencer crushed him into a hug._

_“Mom,” Spencer said, sniffling as he wiped his face. “This is Brendon,” he said, laughing weakly. “Brendon, this is my mother.” He shook his head. “God, I just… I don’t even know what to say.” He looked at his mother and bit his lip. “Did anybody else…” he trailed off and she laughed weakly._

_“They all made it. Do you remember your sisters?” she asked and he nodded. “They and your father are all back home. I was just selling apples alone today,” she said and Spencer’s smile stretched even wider. “God, I remember your smile,” she said, shaking her head. “My baby,” she whispered, hugging him again. “Come on,” she said, pulling his hand into hers. “I have to take you home, your father never did give up hope of seeing you again,” she said and Spencer nodded._

_“B?” he asked and Brendon nodded, squeezing him around the middle._

_“It’s your parents, Spencer. Of _course_ ,” he urged._

_Spencer just nodded but then looked at his mom. “Um, is there any way I can get one of your apples? Brendon’s been hungry all morning,” he said and Brendon blushed._

_Ginger chuckled. “Sure,” she said, picking one that wasn’t too bruised up. Brendon thanked her sheepishly, but then bit into the apple, eating like a starving man. “Wow, when did you eat last?” she asked, and Brendon flushed, cheeks puffed out some by how much food he had in his mouth._

_Spencer chuckled bashfully. “Well, it’s a long story,” he started and Ginger waved a hand._

_“Whatever it is, it can wait until I take you to your father,” she said. She looked at Spencer and shook her head. “My baby,” she whispered and Spencer just beamed._

Brendon laughed. “And then we met James and Spencer’s sisters. We explained about the baby and they were _really_ shocked, but they accepted us into their home,” he said brightly.

Spencer nodded with a smile. “I can’t thank you guys enough. I know it was just chance, but if you hadn’t brought us here, I’d have never found my family again,” he said gratefully.

“Hey there.” They looked down to see Brendon was talking to the baby, who had her big blue eyes open. Brendon beamed. “You look like your daddy, you pretty thing,” he said, kissing the baby’s little foot. “My tiny, beautiful Frankie.”

Mikey laughed. “That’s what Gerard says to Frank all the time,” he teased and Gerard and Frank both glared.

Spencer raised an eyebrow. “Wait… are you two-“

“Oh yeah,” Mikey said and Brendon shot them a surprised look.

Frank raised an eyebrow. “What? I thought we were kinda obvious,” he said, looking at Gerard, who shrugged.

“Really?” Brendon said. “I didn’t get that vibe at all!”

Gerard smirked. “Not every couple hangs all over each other like newlyweds,” he teased Brendon, who was tucked into Spencer’s side, touching nearly as much as possible as they both huddled around their baby.

“Oh yeah?” Brendon said, nodding at Hurley, who was sitting in Mixon’s lap, and Pete, who was licking Mikey’s face as they sat. “Also, _ew_ ,” he said to Pete, who just flipped him off, licking Mikey’s jaw again.

“Don’t mind them,” Gabe said, slinging an arm around Spencer’s shoulders as he stretched out. “They’re an old, love-less couple who sleep in separate beds and share a handshake before bed. They are a sad, sad pair-“

“Dude, you walked in on us fucking last night,” Frank said and Gabe smirked lecherously.

“Oh yeah, did I mention you are incredibly endowed for so small a man?” he asked and Frank glowered.

Gerard just chuckled, putting a hand on his shoulder. “No murdering him in front of the baby,” he said, squeezing slightly before sliding his hand to the back of Frank’s neck.

Gabe just grinned. “Alright, can I hold the baby?” he asked Spencer, who eyed him warily, cuddling her closer.

Brendon chuckled. “He’s sitting right beside you, Spence. Let him hold her for a minute. If you think he’s handling her too roughly, you’re right there to take her back,” he said and Spencer reluctantly laid the baby in Gabe’s arms, showing him how to hold her correctly.

“Hey, she’s kinda really cute,” Gabe said, smiling down at the tiny person in his arms. “She’s really soft and warm and adorable and-“ Gabe was shut up when she suddenly turned her head and threw up all over Gabe’s shirt, silencing him as she started crying.

Spencer quickly grabbed a cloth and wiped her hands and face, pulling her into his arm. Brendon leaned over. “Awww, it’s okay baby. That why you were crying, your tummy hurt?” he asked her, and Spencer just smirked over at Gabe, who was staring down at his clothes in horror.

“Heh, that’s my girl,” Spencer said, kissing the top of her little head while Brendon cleaned her up. As everybody burst out laughing at Gabe’s shocked and horrified expression, Spencer smirked. 

“I’ve got the coolest baby ever.”


End file.
